Harry Dresden: Agent of NERV
by Yuffiek666
Summary: Sometimes when you get a mysterious death, you need to send in a specialist. When that specialist is Harry Dresden, and he's sent to looking into the goings on of Tokyo-3, there's no telling what might happen.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: _Neon Genesis Evangelion_ and _The Dresden Files_ are the properties of Hideko Anno and Jim Butcher respectively. So don't get mad at me for making a fanfic with their stuff.

Prologue

Back in 2000 I was a private detective. I did the standard PI stuff, found stuff people had lost, or more often, found people that were lost. I was even listed in the phonebook under "Wizards". The concept of the supernatural then was laughable by most, blissful ignorance and all. Monsters under the bed and the boogeymen that haunted summer campgrounds were all fiction, and my clients thought I was just using a gimmick to drum up business.

Well the Katsuragi Expedition shot that misconception full of holes didn't they.

Idiots.

There are 7 Laws of Magic. #7: **"Thou shalt not seek beyond the Outer Gates." **

It's bad enough when a wizard does it. I don't need to explain what happens when vanilla mortals try it. The fact that they did it in Antarctica meant that those who should have prevented it didn't know about it until it was too late. At least they were able to contain the damage somewhat.

Still, three billion is an awful big number.

Once most of the world had managed to start getting themselves back on their feet, the people in charge realized that something like this might happen again. The supernatural was REAL, and while humanity had taken a pretty solid hit, we still had numbers and a penchant for violence on our side. That's when the White Council stepped in.

You probably haven't heard of the White Council. After all, wizards have been generally keeping a low profile for centuries. "Burn the witch" and all. Vanilla mortals get a little twitchy at the idea of ordinary looking people being able to blow up buildings without explosives. But this time the Council decided that they needed to get some information to the world's head honchos so they can do something besides keep their heads in the sand.

Problem is, the world is driven by technology nowadays.

Wizards and technology go together like peanut butter and motor oil… on a good day. Something about wizards tends to make anything electronic go buggy in short order. I personally can kill a hard drive at 50 yards without blinking hard.

That meant setting up a teleconference was out and a face-to-face talk was a bad idea no matter how you look at it. So our advice was sent out as nice, safe, anonymous documents. They were probably filed away by "top men" as soon as they arrived. The Council was pretty busy trying to keep everything together with all the power vacuums Impact had created on our side of the street anyway. So nothing really changed. Wizards kept operating (mostly) behind the scenes against That Which Went Bump in the Night.

But, after the first monster came out of sea and went toe to claw with a 200 ft-tall purple robot, it became obvious that someone had taken us seriously. The White Council decided they needed a person to keep an eye on NERV. Someone who could think outside the box, someone who the Council could wash their hands of in case things got messy.

And someone who didn't have enough sense to hide under a rock until it was all over.

So that's how I got the job. For those of you who've been living in a survival shelter since Second Impact, my name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, Special Inspector for NERV. Don't invoke that name lightly.

I'm a wizard. We're touchy on those sorts of things.

* * *

Just because it was close to the witching hour didn't mean a wizard didn't need to sleep like a normal person. Harry stumbled though the apartment, grumbling to himself at the insistent ringing.

"Yeah, yeah…" as he picked up the receiver. "Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."

"Dresden", the unfamiliar voice said over the phone. "Your presence is required at NERV."

"Who is this?"

"Expect a call from local law enforcement shortly." The caller hung up.

Hell's Bells. Cryptic calls like that usually meant something very bad was happening, and more often than not I was going to be at the center of it. I had barely put the receiver back on the hook when it began ringing again.

"Dresden, you free?"

"Hi Murphy. As a matter of fact my night is apparently completely free now. Let me guess, you've finally succumbed to my charm and want to me to ravish you until dawn."

A choking sound came over the line. "Not funny Harry. It's Marcone. He's dead. And it's definitely from the spooky side."

"I'll be there in 20 minutes."

23 minutes later…

"Gentleman" Johnny Marcone had cultured an image as a highly respected businessman over the last few years. Respected enough to gain a position as Director of NERV-Chicago, and had exceeded even SEELE's expectations as Head of North American Resource Management. Apparently the Committee didn't care if he was a murderous monster.

His office was quite large and empty. The only furniture a massive desk behind which sat an office chair big enough to pass itself off as the throne of a Galactic Overlord. The whole room was designed to intimidate the hell out of anyone who entered, all spotless in matte black, save for the police tape at the doorway and the odd discoloration seeping out from behind the desk.

"I may never drink orange juice again." Harry said bleakly.

"You and me both." Captain Karrin Murphy, head of SI, had seen and fought beings that most people would consider pure fantasy. The general public still bought the lie that Second Impact was the result of an asteroid and not a bunch of people messing with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know. There were no such things as ghosts, vampires, faeries and werewolves. Even the recent news footage from Japan was considered "a ridiculous hoax by NERV for additional funding".

"You're sure it's him?"

"I saw the security footage. Marcone just... _melted_ for no obvious reason. At least nothing the cameras could pick up."

"Gard and Hendricks say anything?" motioning to Marcone's chief bodyguards who were being questioned at the other end of the hall.

"Gard said Marcone asked them to leave him alone for an hour. She had protested, Hendricks had grunted, but they did leave. When they came back, they found… what was left. Surveillance tapes confirmed it."

"Veil?" Harry muttered to himself.

A voice from behind the huge desk perked up, "I doubt it, Obi-Wan. If someone slipped in here somehow, they're better than me."

"Grasshopper, how the cop life suiting you?"

SI's forensic specialist / paranormal consultant Molly Carpenter gathered her evidence kit, which included some rather _unorthodox_ looking gear and walked over. My apprentice had taken over my old gig with SI several months ago, since my wizarding stuff had been taking me farther abroad lately. It seemed to fit her well. Her magical talents weren't really suited for the high stress environment of the Wardens. "Boring, with occasional moments of utter weirdness like this one. Whoever or whatever managed to… tang… Marcone did it so clean I can't find a trace of how they did it. Ok boys, I'm done here." she motioned for the coroners to come in, noting that one of them carried a mop and bucket.

The three of them stepped into a side office. Harry gave an almost imperceptible nod, and Molly made a subtle hand gesture.

"OK, any cameras or mikes in here are spoofed. What's going on Obi Wan?"

Harry started, "Remember this is Marcone we're talking about. He was expecting something obviously. He might have thought he could handle it alone, but more likely he wanted to keep them..." tilting his head down the hall, "out of the loop. Which is pretty odd now that I think about it."

"Any ideas?"

"On WHAT might have done this? No. Why seems easier though. This has the feel of an internal power play gone bad. Marcone didn't answer to anyone but himself, but he still had to work with the people who put him in charge here. That means looking higher up the corporate food chain is a good place to start. Plus, someone had called me right before you did Murph, They wanted me here for a reason."

"Great, should we start prepping for the Apocalypse then?"

"Let's hope not."

* * *

The Green Hornet made a few unpleasant noises as Harry pulled up to his apartment building, the WWII-era Jeep was rugged, but still only ran properly 8 days in 10. He missed the Blue Beetle, but after Mexico had ceased being a sovereign nation his mechanic had told him parts for it were just too hard to come by. Pre-dawn light was beginning to filter in, and as Harry got out of the car, the grey Warden cloak-wearing figure unveiled himself outside his door.

"Great, things have officially gone to Hell." Harry thought to himself.

"Warden Dresden."

"Morgan. At least this night probably can't get worse."

"A death of a Signatory of the Accords is a serious matter, Dresden. Even scum like Marcone." Morgan limped a little crossing the street to meet him. He'd had it after nearly dying during an attempt by, what he still insisted was, "a rogue individual and most certainly not a member of an organized conspiracy" to pretty much mind control and wipe out the White Council. Call it what you will. "So the Council has made some arrangements for you."

"Really? I seriously doubt this is an Accords matter. It doesn't take a wizard to know NERV is probably involved in this."

"Nevertheless Dresden, I have my orders, and I'm giving you yours. Insubordination isn't something to be treated lightly."

"Neither is being sent on a suicide run. Considering how much high-tech is there I wouldn't get within 10 miles without messing something up, and probably getting shot many, many times. Besides, isn't Tokyo-3 Ancient Mai's back yard?"

"I'm aware of that, but the Merlin was _insistent_ that YOU perform the investigation." Morgan pulled out a large envelope, "Here's the information the Council has gathered, and your cover story."

Grimacing, Harry took the proffered papers and willed his amulet to glow so he could look over them, eyes slowly widening in disbelief. "Special Inspector to NERV? Stars and Stones, how the Hell am I supposed to pull that off?"

"This should help. McCoy told me to give it to you." Morgan held out an old-fashioned silver pocket watch, with a rather intricate looking sigil on the front face. "He said it would suppress your aura that makes electronics fail without interfering with your magic."

Harry thought for a moment. He'd crafted a spell like that before, but it was delicate stuff, and its very nature precluded him slinging any mojo around. If something like this could be made easily…

"Before you ask, he said it was _extremely_ difficult to make this, that he'd been working on it for over 20 years. And that it will only work for you."

A personal Anti-Tech Field suppressor? And Ebenezer had been working on this for _how_ long? The implications resounded in Harry's mind. "Did he say how it works?"

"No, though he did mention it serves as a battery in a pinch."

Dresden took the watch from Morgan. Immediately he felt a faint tug of power from the device. He flipped it open, the dial of an old style Mickey Mouse watch staring at him, and an inscription on the inside of the cover. 'Best of luck Hoss. E.'

"What if I say no?"

"You won't."

"Why not?"

"Your own personal sense of duty. And, as much as I may dislike you, you're probably the one person who can do this. Regardless of our past history, I have come to accept the fact that you are, and have been, serving in the Council's best interests."

"Don't get all gushy on me Morgan. Fine, when do I need to leave?"

"The _Over The Rainbow_ sets sail at 0900 Pacific Time today. Warden Ramirez is expecting you within the hour. "

"Short notice. What about if something crops up here?"

"I'm under orders to serve as Warden for the Chicago area until you get back."

Harry inwardly grimaced, "Swell, anything else I should know?"

"Most of the information we have is in the dossier. Ramirez will provide your documentation. Officially, you're joining the escort for the Second Child and Unit-02 to Tokyo-3."

"Child?"

"Yes." Morgan's face was unreadable. "Apparently those giant robots are driven by teenagers." And with that, Donald Morgan turned and stiffly walked off, disappearing behind a veil.

Things started failing into place then. Marcone would go to extraordinary lengths regarding children's welfare. Asking, or more likely_ forcing_, a kid to fight a battle like that would have been untenable to him. If Marcone had found out, well… killing him fast would be the only answer they had available to them. Sending children into a war, even though the White Council had had to do much the same in recent years, didn't sit well with Harry either.

But that could wait. A few days on the ocean would allow him to start thinking of a plan. Right now he had to let Karrin and Molly know he'd be out of town for a few weeks, and try to convince them not to kill Morgan in the meantime.

* * *

Harry walked up the stairs to his apartment. He'd barely gotten in before a 30-pound furry blur shouldered past and threatened to send him tumbling back down onto the sidewalk. Mister had always been like that. Even now, he was rather spry for a cat pushing 20. Then again… there was probably a good reason for that, as Mister scampered to the upstairs apartment.

Back when Harry had first moved in, Old Mrs. Spunkelcrief had been happy to rent out the basement. She had died in her sleep the day after Impact, and Harry had been a little surprised when she'd named him as the owner of the building in her will. His other neighbors, the Willoughby's, had moved to Iowa to be with family shortly thereafter, leaving him as currently the sole resident and owner of the brownstone. The sole human resident that is.

The upstairs door opened easily. Mister, of course, was already inside, curled up on the lap of the woman sitting in the room yawning. Harry peeked inside. That she had seen better days was an understatement. Her hair, once a fiery red, was now dull, streaked with gray, and hung over her face like a shroud. Her eyes haunted and hollow, staring at the far side of the universe for all Harry knew.

"Lea?"

No response of course. It had been a very long time, at least for mortals, since she had said anything. The Handmaiden of the Winter Court, and pre-Impact one of the most dangerous and wicked of the Faerie Folk, had been in a catatonic state for nearly 15 years. The occasional faint titter of insane laughter and her stroking Mister was about all she ever did.

A familiar 12-inch tall figure flittered up to Harry as he stepped inside.

"How is she?"

"The same Za-Lord, as always." Toot-Toot answered somberly.

Wyldfae weren't exactly known for loyalty or devotion to a task pre-Impact. Harry had more or less initially bribed Toot into a working relationship with regular pizza, despite the fact that some people might compare that arrangement as the same as a drug dealer and his junkies. Afterward though, with the creation of the Neverwas (It was easier to say than the Wasteland of the NeverNever) the Wee Folk had become… rather grim.

Earth had taken a beating but Humanity had more or less adapted. When you're dealing with nigh-omnipotent, nigh-immortals who basically were in the same position as Princess Leia watching Alderran being blasted into rubble, catatonia was probably the best result. That sort of change is something only the young can recover from.

"I'm going to be gone for a while. Hopefully it won't more than a few weeks."

"_Dres.. den? Is .. that you … my dear boy?"_

The voice startled both of them. Even Mister perked his head up.

"Lea? Godmother? Can you hear me?" Harry asked anxiously.

Lea's voice was barely a whisper as Harry knelt do next to her to hear.

_"Of… course … sweet child… You go … to the Black Vault … to help fight … the White Legion. To heal One… is to save us All… And the Children… shall show… the way._"

Lea's head sagged down, the effort to speak had utterly drained her.

"Lea? LEA?" Harry checked to she if she was still breathing, panic swelling in his voice, "Toot! Is she going to be all right?"

The little faerie had a smile on his face I hadn't seen in a very long time. "I believe so Za-Lord. This is truly a good sign. Worry not, the Guard and I shall care for and defend her to the bitter end in your absence."

Harry took a moment to center himself and calm down. A wizard who didn't keep a good reign on his emotions tended to make things explode. Like buildings. "Great. When I went to bed tonight, I was expecting the world to keep on spinning. Now, I'm about to go half a world away to a land of giant monsters and robots because a man, who I think was a stellar example of the kind of inhuman monsters people are capable of being, is dead and some graybeards who half the time think I'm Emperor Palpatine have decided that Harry Dresden is the one person who can fix this f_ked-up situation." He threw his hands up in frustration and headed to the door. "I need to pack."

The old basement apartment had been converted into his and Molly's lab, She was still technically his apprentice, though now that Molly had her own place, she didn't come by much. Mouse was already staying with her, he had never liked Lea anyway. Of course the big lug could just have liked Grasshopper more. He walked over to the old mini-kitchen and the access door to the sub-basement. There was one thing Harry knew he'd need to take with him, and the one thing he didn't want anyone else to possibly get a hold of in his absence.

Harry heard pages rustling from below. "Bob?"

"Hai! Ai no chikara wa anata ni shōri o shimasu!"

"I'm NEVER going to forgive Molly for how she's corrupted you." he grumbled as he started down the stairs. His tone switched to something from a badly dubbed Asian adult film, "Bob, I'm going need you long time now."

Bob was Harry's ace in the hole. A spirit of air and intellect housed in the skull of a pre-Reniassance French sorcerer, he had served as a database, technical advisor, and sounding board for wizards for centuries. If there was something magical he didn't know something about, chances are nobody had been crazy enough to try it, and Bob had served under some pretty insane and evil warlocks before. When Harry had taken possession of him, most of the negative aspects for his personality had been locked away, leaving a wisecracker with a taste for Harlequin romance novels.

That was before Molly had accidentally left some manga at her old lab desk.

He had taken to it like a duck to water. The obvious benefit to Harry though was that his Japanese was perfect. His conversations over the years had allowed Harry to be able to now clumsily speak the language, and it had even filtered over to Molly's preference for her spellcasting. Of course, Bob was now a raging otaku, and Harry was planning on taking him to Tokyo-3, where they were fighting monsters with giant robots.

"Somewhere in Heaven's bureaucracy is a file marked Harry Dresden, Universe's Chew Toy. It's probably right next to Peter Parker." he bemused to himself. "Hey, time to get your head in the game! You've just won the Super Bowl and you're going to Disneyland!"

"Disneyland's underwater last time I looked at a map you baka gaijin."

"Yeah well… I never got to go either. But I'm leaving on a trip to Tokyo-3 in half an hour, and unfortunately, circumstances indicate that I'm going to need you while I'm there."

If Bob had eyes they would have rolled out of their sockets at that point. The excited, incoherent babble that started issuing from the skull just made Harry cradle his face in his palm.

"That reminds me, I'm going to need your 'public' outfit, you remember where I put it?"

Bob stopped his giddy self-banter for a moment. "Fourth shelf, right hand side, blue pill bottle" before resuming into a chant of what sounded like "ohboyohboyohboyohboyohboy" to Harry.

"Right, thanks." Harry grabbed the small bottle and opened it. Inside was a molar. One of Bob's to be precise. The tiny spell inscriptions Harry had added to it would enable Bob to veil himself with an image of a silver robotic head and pass himself off as some sort of toy. As he popped the tooth into place, the holomancy took hold. It was definitely less creepy anyway.

"Alright 'Widget'", recalling an old comic book character that he had based the illusion image from, "time to go. Try not to have an aneurysm."

* * *

The last thing he did before leaving was call Murphy and fill her in on the new developments.

"Their Section 2 decided to pull some internal jurisdictional bullshit on us and the Feds. We're out of the loop now. Bastards."

"No argument there Murph. I've got a bad feeling someone's playing me and is already 10 moves ahead."

"I know it's difficult Harry, but sometimes it's OK to say No."

"Either I or someone close to me would likely end up like Marcone if I did. Someone wants me in the game, and is willing to pull a lot of strings to do it."

"Be careful. I can't cover your ass from 10,000 miles away."

"Like I'd want anyone else to? One last thing, Did Molly come up with any idea on how they might have done it? I've been a bit distracted."

"No, in fact she told me she was positive that 'a wizard [I]didn't[/I] do it'."

"Figures. Stay safe."

"You too."

Harry hung the phone up. Molly was right in that respect. Nonhumans could work magic without messing up technology if they wanted to, but both of them had been around black magic enough to recognize the psychic residue it left behind. Whatever had killed Marcone, it wasn't a spell… or probably anything magical for that matter. Even **Bob** hadn't known of anything that could do that. Which meant that he had to go to Tokyo-3 to find some answers.

The cab pulled up outside, the Way to Nevada was only a few miles from his place, and the actual walk took less than a minute. Even now he'd probably beat Carlos there. He took a moment to look at his home, noting a few dim lights flickering near the roof as Toot and the Guard continued their vigil over Lea.

He wondered if he'd ever see it again.

* * *

Rush hour hadn't begun in earnest yet and it only took 10 minutes for the cab to get to the shopping plaza. Most of the shops hadn't opened yet for the day, only the big 24-hour retail chain store, the blue and yellow sign dominating the building's front, had cars in front of it.

Harry stopped for a moment and considered his new watch.

"Nothing like a stress test to see if this thing works." and he strode to the automatic doors.

The greeter blanched slightly. After all, when someone comes walking in the door wearing a hat, black leather duster and carrying a staff and large dufflebag, you have to assume he's probably not there to shop.

"Welcome to Best Buy, sir. Um, I'll have to ask that you leave your personal effects at the service desk while you shop."

Dresden took a moment to look around. No explosions. No sparks erupting. Nothing spontaneously ignited. Even the anti-shoplifting sensors didn't go off. Yesterday, just walking into a place like this would have been like shooting a flare gun into a fireworks factory. He looked at his watch, and nodded approvingly. "Not bad."

"Sir?"

"Sorry, but I seem to be late for a very important date!" Then he turned and started heading toward the alley on the far side of the parking lot.

The NeverNever had been a dangerous place before Second Impact. The Ways though were a useful and fast method of long-distance travel for those who knew them and could deal with the occasional wild beastie or hazardous terrain. Impact had changed that somewhat. The beasties were now few and far between, but dealing with them wasn't exactly an option.

Harry reached the end of the alley and touched his pentacle amulet, the red gem in the center whispering to him that there hadn't been any changes since his last trip. _**"Aparturum"**_ he said quietly, and a gash in reality appeared. Harry quickly stepped through, and closed the Gate behind. No sense in letting anything bleed through unnecessarily. It opened onto a narrow crack at the base of a cliff, the opposite end of the Way was a small cave just up the hill. Still, this route offered a pretty good look at the Neverwas.

The sky was the same, a blanket of angry black thunderheads that never rained, whipped by hurricane winds high above into a constant frenzy. The lurid scarlet sky that was visible through the rare breaks cast a dim glow over the monochrome wastes, punctuated by distant flashes of lightning and the continuous low roar of thunder. Near the ground, the wind was calm though. From the cave entrance at the top of the hill, Harry could see to the horizon, where a black dust cloud began slowly rolling along the valley below.

On her first trip through the Neverwas, Molly had commented it looked like those pictures from the surface of Venus the old Soviet space probes had taken back in the 80's. The analogy was pretty accurate. The backlash of Antarctica being vaporized had all but wiped out the Winter Court. Summer had gone insane, kicking into overdrive and slowly baking the NeverNever into inhospitable desert. That greenhouse effect was true on Earth as well, if less pronounced. Mab's fortress of Arctis Tor was Winter's final bastion, and the Queen of Air and Darkness had apparently used the last of her strength to encase the whole area under a glacier to protect it.

Harry turned and stepped into the cave. Watching a world slowly turn to ash was not something he wanted to dwell on right now.

* * *

The Way opened up a few miles outside Las Vegas, and as Harry came out of the old silver mine entrance he saw the large black SUV pulling up the access road. He grinned. He'd beaten Carlos here, and he knew what that meant.

The big Suburban pulled up and Warden Ramirez stepped out from behind the wheel. "Dammit Dresden, you've got to let me in on how you get around so fast!"

"Trade secret 'Los, you know the deal."

"Yeah, yeah." He reached back into the car and pulled out a sack and a cup. Dresden's stomach gurgled audibly. He'd been up for a while now. Food would at least take his mind off things for a bit.

"At least you're easy to get breakfast for. Your usual." Carlos tossed the sack to Dresden. "You know, this'll probably be the last time you eat something from Burger King for a while. I doubt they have any in Japan."

"Mmmmm", nodded Dresden, savoring the still warm biscuit, then swallowed. "You've got a point there." He noted Ramirez hadn't mentioned that whole setup this was likely a kamikaze run yet.

"What I don't understand is how you got suckered into doing this. I mean, it's crazier than… well… crazier than all the other stuff you've pulled off combined. You know you ain't gonna fool anyone into thinking you're some kind of internal affairs spook looking like that you know. Not to mention all the electronics that'll start going haywire when you walks in a room."

"Actually I got a fix for the tech stuff." Harry displayed the watch.

"Hmm, spiffy, what's it do?"

"Apparently makes me vanilla with regards to computers and stuff."

"You're shitting me."

"No lie, I tested it before I got here. Surprised the hell out of me."

"How come you get all the wonderful toys?"

"Because I'm stupid enough to not know when to call in a sick day."

"Got that right. Get in, we gotta swing by Hector's place and get your ID's made. And maybe clean up that look."

* * *

His staff was still an oddity, and the duster seemed a little over the top, but otherwise he looked more like Elliot Ness from _The Untouchables _rather than an extra from _El Dorado_. He'd had to give up his revolver for a .45 automatic, no real agent would carry a six-shooter as a primary weapon, but at least it was a model he was familiar with. The guards at the gate had given him the standard cursory once over, and he'd passed muster apparently. Now he was at the berth of the supercarrier _Over the Rainbow_ as it was making final preparations to set sail, facing the young officer who'd come out to greet him.

"Permission to come aboard?"

"Special Agent Dresden?"

"That's me, I'm as special as they come."

The man who'd come out to meet him gave Dresden a sour look. "Lieutenant Maxwell Ford. The Captain is rather busy at the moment and officially regrets being unable to welcome you aboard personally. Unofficially, he's informed me that should you interfere with the operations of this ship while you're on board, he has the authority to and I quote: 'strap you to the starboard anchor and dunk you like a donut.' I've been assigned as your aide while onboard. That does not make me your valet, butler, or room service. It does mean that I, or someone that I've assigned, is to be with you at all times while you're out of your quarters. Am I making myself clear?"

"Crystal Max."

"Flippancy will not endear you to anyone Agent Dresden. I suggest you make this easy. It would be a shame if we set sail without you, but we are on a tight schedule and cannot be afforded to turn around because of one man."

Normally, this would invoke a scathing retort. However, Harry was the one in enemy territory without backup right now. Being snarky to a being some might worship as a god is one thing, but this was just an ordinary Navy officer. He could let this slide for now.

"Understood, Lieutenant. If you would show me to my quarters? I've had a long flight in this morning and would like to get some rest before meeting your Captain."

"Hmmph. Welcome aboard then."

* * *

The quarters were small and located in an out of the way corridor. It was surprisingly private for being on a ship, considering the normal bustle of crewmen he'd seen as he'd made his way there. At least it wasn't the brig. Harry figured he had a couple of hours before someone would escort him to the Captain, might as well look over those files Morgan had given him.

He flipped open to the personnel records, getting an idea of the kinds of people he'd be dealing with in Tokyo-3.

_Commander Ikari, Gendo _

Doctorate in Genetics from Kyoto University. Has overseen the NERV facilities of Tokyo-3 since it's inception. Sometimes described as the region's dictator. His primary post-doctorate work was at the Artificial Evolution Laboratory in Hakone, Japan alongside his then wife Yui before her accidental death in 2004…

Harry continued scanning the file, his dislike of the man growing with each sentence. Two lines near the end stood out.

Son - Ikari, Shinji (see separate file)

Legal guardian of Ayanami, Rei (see separate file)

The photo was a wide shot of him at his desk, hands steepled before his face, eyes invisible behind his glasses. Harry noticed the office was similar to Marcone's… or more likely, Marcone had modeled his office after Gendo's.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're a real swell guy Gendo." Harry's voice dripped with sarcasm as he turned to the next file.

_Deputy Commander Fuyutsuki, Kozo_

Doctorate in Biology from Kyoto University, Masters in Religion from Oxford University. Previously Professor of meta-biology at Kyoto University…

'…A bit of a womanizer while I taught him at Oxford, he was never without a girl on his arm it seemed…'

The personality profile was a surprise. It had been written by Arthur Langtry. The Merlin himself had taught this man in his youth. Harry thought about what the ramifications of that might be and shook his head.

_Tokyo-3 Director of Research and Development - Akagi, Ritsuko_

Doctorates in Computer Science, Biology and Genetics. Current Head of Project E at Tokyo-3…

"Ugh. You'll be throwing a bunch of technobabble at me I'll bet. Let's see who's next?" Harry muttered, turning the page.

Harry stopped and stared at the name. "No way. Can't be." He flipped to the photo of the young woman. She was a little older than Molly, and the black dress under the red jacket left little to the imagination. He knew her odd purple hair was not a dye job though. Just as he knew those eyes once belonged to a little girl who had seen things no mortal should ever have to see. He looked at the jewelry she wore. Around her neck was a prominent silver cross, drawing attention to her chest. The earrings were more important though, the left silver, the right copper. At first glance they looked like small coins, slightly blackened and warped, as though they had been in a fire. A closer look revealed the faint markings of a pentacle inscribed in each of them, the only remnants of Harry's first shield bracelet to have survived that day.

"Stars and Stones, Misato. What the Hell are you doing here."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: _Neon Genesis Evangelion_ and _The Dresden Files_ are the properties of Hideko Anno and Jim Butcher respectively. So don't get mad at me for making a fanfic with their stuff.

* * *

Dwelling on the past is bad. For a guy like me especially so, because there are some things that I've seen, and Seen, that I will never be rid of. So looking at the photo of Misato brought me back to one of my worst days. Impact hadn't left me _physically_ scarred like some of my other bad days, but that much death and destruction had made me feel like someone had been scooping my soul out with a melon baller for months afterward.

I lay back on the, rather cramped, bunk of my quarters and closed my eyes. I'd been up since before midnight and apparently when you get the idea to reflect on something when you're that tired, you don't recognize when you're falling asleep.

* * *

This had been the seventh incident in the past two weeks, and each time it was getting more violent. After the third one had gotten a lucky shot in with a chair to my head, I had started bringing Michael along as backup. Michael Carpenter was a good friend, and though I hated getting him involved in this sort of stuff when he should have been helping his wife and kids, he'd refused to say no.

Of course that meant I'd be receiving end of a long ass-chewing from Charity this evening. The inconvenience of her being eight months pregnant didn't slow her down in that regard. I only hoped I could figure out whatever was whipping all the local ghosts into a frenzy and put a stop to it before Charity's regular verbal assaults at me got her worked up enough to go into labor. Michael of course would get some of it too, but the man was inflappable.

"Harry. Why haven't you been using the ghost dust before today? It seemed to work rather well."

I shrugged, "It's not exactly easy to make Michael, or cheap. I'm a bit leery of spreading it around haphazardly."

He looked at me quizzically, "I thought you said it was powdered iron. I can understand why you said not to breathe in any of it…"

"It's _mostly_ iron. The stuff'll work on a lot of things from the NeverNever because of that, but for ghosts and other intangible baddies, you have to add a few things to make it 'extra'-real."

"Such as?"

I really didn't want to answer that. There was a reason I kept the dust in a lead-lined box. Of course you can't exactly _lie_ to a Knight of the Cross sitting right next to you.

"Depleted uranium's not exactly something you can pick up at the corner drugstore." I deadpanned.

Michael's eyebrows rose at that. He slowly turned his head to look at the box full of ghost dust in the back seat, then turned back and murmured something that I didn't quite hear in Latin.

He stayed quiet for several minutes, which gave me some time to think about what was going on in the spirit world. For some reason that scene from _Ghostbusters_ about Revelations and the End of the World being the reason they had been so busy lately came to mind. I pushed those thoughts away, but I then noticed out the corner of my eye that several odd expressions began working their way over Michael's face.

"Stop the car, Harry." Michael said softly.

"What? We're almost at your house Michael."

"FOR GOD'S SAKE STOP THE CAR NOW!" It scared me enough I nearly swerved into oncoming traffic. I looked at him. Michael's face was white as a sheet. A look of utter grief played over his face, as if the man had just watched his wife and kids gunned down in front of him. I had barely pulled the Beetle to the curb before he jumped out, _Amoracchius_ in hand, and knelt in prayer.

I came around the front of my car to ask what had gotten Michael so upset, when I noticed the odd glow on the horizon. Confused, I looked to my right, saw the glow from sunset there, and turned back just in time for the first wave of nausea to hit me.

The utter _wrongness_ of it was the worst. I dropped to all fours and started heaving my guts out before my brain kicked into survival mode enough to start building a barrier to whatever it was. I started focusing on my shield bracelet, shakily erecting a barrier to help buffer me from the effects. I noticed Michael's sword had begun to shine with a pure white light, the big man openly weeping. I looked back at the road. It didn't look like whatever was happening was affecting anyone else at the moment.

I felt the pressure on my mind ease slightly, the wave or pulse or whatever seemed to have washed over. What the Hell had that been?

"Michael? Are you all right?"

He looked horrible, as if all his strength and will and… Faith I guess, had been torn out of him. I wasn't feeling too spiffy myself. "Get me to my family Harry." he whispered. I helped him back to the car, then slumped behind the wheel and pulled back onto the road with a rather impressive spray of gravel. Michael's house was only a couple minutes away. I had the feeling time was of the essence.

I'd barely pulled up the driveway before Charity came running out.

"Oh God, Michael! It's Molly! She's…"

The sound of panic in Charity's voice at the name of his eldest daughter energized him. Michael charged into the house. I wasn't far behind.

Molly was lying on the living room couch, in some kind of fugue seizure. I'd seen this sort of psychic backlash before, and having just experienced some myself I figured I knew what was happening. Charity and the other kids huddled together in the adjoining kitchen. Michael had grabbed Molly's hands, his face a mask of fury I'd never seen before.

As if he was standing up to God Himself and shouting "YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY DAUGHTER!"

I touched my hand to her forehead. She was burning up, but more importantly I felt the familiar tingle of power that identified her as having magical talent. I hadn't noticed it before, whatever was going on must have awakened it suddenly. I had to work fast though. She was young, untrained, and taking the full brunt of this. I pulled out the lump of chalk I kept in my duster pocket and drew a circle around the couch. Biting my thumb hard enough to draw blood I sealed the circle, cutting off the residual effect of the wave. Molly was still in danger, but I figured the circle would insulate her long enough for me to pull this off.

"Michael, let go of her hands."

Michael just shook his head. He was silently mouthing a prayer over and over.

"Michael" I pleaded, " Please. Let me help."

Something about how I said it must have broken through to him. I sure as Hell don't know what it was. But he let go of Molly's hands. I didn't miss a beat. I placed my hand over Molly's eyes, drew up my will and with the lightest touch I could muster considering the pressure I was under, chanted **_"Dorme, Dormius. Dorme Dormius."_**

Molly's body stopped shaking and went limp. Her breathing went from ragged gasps to a more normal rhythm. I felt her pulse slowing and becoming stronger. I sagged with the effort from spellcasting. Somnomancy's tricky stuff unless you have a knack for it, which I don't, and the stress I'd been under meant it had taken a lot out of me.

Michael saw Molly calm down and looked up at me, his eyes red and puffy after the emotional rollercoaster he'd just been on. "Harry." his voice raspy, "What's happened to my little girl?"

"Same thing that happened to me when we stopped I think, but she didn't know how to handle it and it hit her a lot harder." I had a few other suspicions, but that could wait. "I used a sleep spell on her. Sort of like a medically induced coma doctors use to reduce brain trauma. It should last a day or two. "

Michael nodded, too overcome to speak. I smudged the chalk circle and fell into a lounge chair to catch my breath. "Do you know what's going on Michael?"

"His Judgment is at hand." was all he said.

I pondered that for second. "I thought the Bible said there'd be bugles and everything." The utter absurdity of what I'd just said struck both Michael and Charity like a physical blow. I'd never been big on religion. "Listen, for what it's worth I don't believe God would be so petty as to take a good man's daughter away from him. This is something else."

"His Will is unknowable but to Him."

"Yeah well, I'm always sticking my nose where it doesn't belong." I got up out of the chair and headed for the door. Charity had come over and was now kneeling next to her husband, the two of them holding Molly's hand, the kids huddled around them like church mice. I got serious then. "Hopefully this will be over soon."

I was halfway out when Charity spoke up. "Harry… You're welcome to stay."

I blinked. Not an hour ago I was dreading the tongue-lashing I'd expected from her. Now here she was offering shelter from the encroaching darkness to someone she had reason to hate. Maybe it's that sheltering instinct all mothers have. Charity's sudden behavioral 180 struck at me.

"Crap, I guess the world really is coming to an end. Glad I had a big bowl of Wheaties this morning." With that I headed out to the Beetle.

Flippancy in the face of utter terror is a great defense mechanism. It works for Spider-Man.

Things were getting worse by the time I got to my place. The psychic pall that hung over the city was starting to affect everyone now. Murphy and every other cop would be in the thick of this, trying to main order in the face of growing panic. I hoped she would be all right. I heard breaking glass down the block as I got to my door. Riots were likely starting to break out all over town. I wasn't sure what to do myself and a big part of me wanted to go back and take Charity up on her offer.

I got inside and pulled the door to. That's when the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. Someone else was in my place, and if they'd gotten past the wards, my back was now horribly exposed to someone who probably could swat me like a fly.

"Dresden." A melodious, though somehow strained, voice stated. "By Blood and Power a debt is owed. 'Tis time to collect upon it."

I swallowed. Hard. I didn't dare turn around.

"Hello, Godmother."

I was up shit creek without a paddle. Lea had me dead to rights in more ways than one. I frantically looked at the now shut door to my apartment and tried to figure if I could somehow blast it off the hinges and get outside before she did something unpleasant to me.

"Face me." Again the voice sounded… strained for some reason.

"Um, I'd rather not. See the city's going to Hell in handbasket right now and I was…"

**_"FACE ME."_** There was Power behind those words, and I immediately pivoted on my right foot like a marionette.

Lea looked like someone who'd just gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson, Chuck Norris and Freddy Kruger. Her hair had been scorched. One eye had swollen shut. Dozens of scrapes and cuts covered her body. From the looks of her it seemed like she'd been hit by shrapnel, several of the wounds had left the burn marks typical of how iron reacted to a fey.

I stood there dumbfounded, partially from the compulsion Lea had forced, partially from the shock that there was something out there that could DO that to her.

"Stars and Stones. What happened?"

"A debt to me is owed… and now collected. You will go to my Lady and offer what aid you can."

I thought over that for a second. My godmother was asking me to go and help **Mab **of all people. I knew faeries were crazy but this was like sending a mosquito to fight alongside a tank.

"Lea, that's insane. I wouldn't last half a second in a fight like that." Of course, cornered like I was, I didn't exactly have any real say in the matter.

"That is your payment for the debt owed to me."

"And how am I supposed to get there?"

Lea lifted one arm shakily. I realized she was hurt badly. For a moment, I thought that maybe, _just maybe_, I could sucker punch her and make a run for it. It wouldn't really accomplish anything in the long run. It'd just ensure my death at her hands later would be all the more horrible. It also occurred to me that whatever had hit me and Molly earlier was the reason why Mab needed help. There was something vaguely familiar about that psychic attack now that I thought about it.

"I can open a Way to my Lady for a short time. I have not the strength to go with you though, nor can I guide you back. However, there is something owed to you that can."

That was strange. Lea owed ME something? When had that happened?

"What's the catch?"

"The bargain was made before you came to be. It is knowledge and I am obligated to warn you of the price it may carry. Time is fleeting though. Choose quickly."

So there was a catch. Still, Lea had me over a barrel and could force me to accept her terms if she wanted, even if the only thing keeping her upright right now was her pride.

But sometimes you have to take a chance. If Michael was right, and the Judgment was really coming, I might as well go kicking and screaming into the long dark night. Screw the fine print. "Deal."

Lea's battered face smiled slightly at that, then she closed and opened her hand. A single red gem had appeared in her palm. I reached out and took it, feeling an odd warmth from it as soon as my fingers touched it. I brought it up and it abruptly jumped into the center of my pentacle, as if it had always meant to be there.

The one thing I had of my mother.

"My debt to she who bore you is now fulfilled, and so now you must fulfill yours to me." Lea waved her arm and a gash in reality appeared. "Go quickly."

I didn't think twice. With this much craziness going on, thinking just causes too many problems. I could ask questions later if I lived through this.

* * *

The Way took me directly from my apartment onto an endless field of ice. The air seemed thin, and I thought for a moment Lea had decided to dump me in the middle of deepest Winter and freeze me to death just for giggles. Even with my heavy duster I'd last maybe five minutes before hypothermia set in. I kept my head down, arm up, shielding my face from the stinging snow…

Wait… the stinging RAIN. The wind that was blowing was hot, like the exhaust from a jet engine, and the snow being picked up from the ground by it was melting, if not outright evaporating in the sudden heat. I looked in the direction it was blowing from and blinked.

The plain was more or less featureless to the horizon, and though the sky was dark, the light that was apparently the source of the wind was clear.

It was tall, mind-bogglingly tall. Scale was hard to gauge at this distance but it was probably 20 miles away and a mile tall, a rough humanoid figure, arms too long for its body and just a lump where it's head would be. It glowed like the sun, with streamers reaching out of its back another mile or two into the sky. Next to it, equally gargantuan, a woman of unearthly beauty and cold rage fought against the shining giant. Lea had been more out of it than I thought. I literally _was_ a mosquito compared to that sort of primal, elemental fury. Even if I could get close enough to strike out at that thing, my strongest spell would be as effective as an ant's fart in a hurricane.

That's when I saw the shockwave coming. The power of their blows was pulsing out, chewing up the ice before it and driving it forward in a hail of death. I barely got my shield up in time to deflect a small safe spot around me. I looked around, and about 200 yards to the left and behind me I saw the flicker of another shield appear and go down as the blast front passed. Behind it, an older man, his bald head shining in the bizarre light, squinted in my direction.

"Hoss?" Ebenezer McCoy shouted. "Hell's Bells boy, what are you doing here?"

It took me a minute to get across the ice field to McCoy, the snowmelt making the footing slippery. I brought my shield up again as another blast front passed while I was getting there, and I could tell each one was tearing up the ground more and more.

"Sir? Where are we?"

"You don't know?" he exclaimed. He shook his head then. "Never mind. I'll explain later. I need your help boy, Simon's dead and I need someone to cover me long enough to get the containment spell working. Mab's keeping him busy but I doubt even she can stop him for much longer." I looked over at the body, recognizing the purple stole that marked him as a Senior Council member. The snow beneath him was stained crimson. A jagged shard of ice had caught him in the neck and he'd bled out in seconds.

Another pulse swept over us then, this time it was carrying ice chunks the size of basketballs.

"Containment? On THAT?" I pointed at where Mab and the giant were fighting.

"The whole Senior Council's here working on it. But we can't get anyone else to this spot in time to get the sigil to work. It's us or nothing!"

I nodded. I knew what he was asking. I had to be the shield-bearer long enough for him to get the kill shot. "How long?"

"Two minutes." he said, though the actual time was irrelevant. 'Do or do not, there is no try.' as Yoda would say. If I didn't hold the shield until McCoy and the Council could get the spell working, we'd all be dead.

I started pouring my will into my bracelet as the next shockwave hit. They were coming faster now, and a great popping and groaning noise resounded from deep under my feet. White sparks began to drizzle from my bracelet, the individual shields on it glowing cherry red as I pumped far more power through the focus that it was designed to handle.

After the next wave the heat from coming off the bracelet became intense enough that I had to flip it over the wet sleeve of my duster. The drizzle of sparks became a shower after the third wave, and the metal began to warp under the strain. I was gasping from the effort of funneling that much raw power though it.

A direct hit from on the shield from an ice block the size of the Blue Beetle after the fourth wave made one of the charms pop off and shoot a good hundred feet away. The remaining charms suddenly flared, and the leather of my duster's sleeve began to smolder. I dropped to one knee, both from exhaustion and to scoop snow onto my arm with my free hand, trying to buy a few more seconds of life from the compromised focus.

The feedback from the fifth wave nearly bowled me over, even though I was kneeling. I could hear the groaning and cracking of the ice sheet more clearly now, and I could see great fissures beginning to radiate outward from where Mab and the titan battled. I watched as a great arm swept across Mab and her form seemed to evaporate underneath it.

"Mab's down!" I cried, purely for my own sake. I doubted even Ebenezer, not ten feet behind me, could hear me over the din. As the giant raised both arms to the sky I saw the final shockwave coming, almost ponderously slow compared to the others. It wouldn't matter. Trying to shield against that would have been like containing a nuke in a paper bag. That's when I saw the glimmer streaking out in front of it. Heading right toward us. "Ebenezer! Incoming!" just as he shouted "Down, Hoss!" and released his working.

Several things happened in the next couple of seconds. My shield bracelet finally flared and burned out, most of the remaining charms blackened and beginning to crumble to dust. A massive iridescent blue beam shot out over my head, and I could see several others converging on the glowing form from all directions. The engine of the missile, or rather the escape pod, which I had seen headed toward us, abruptly died, the mechanics overwhelmed by so much magic in the vicinity. It bounced and skittered across the ice until it slid to a stop not 20 yards away from me. The shockwave, which I figured would kill us all, abruptly folded in on itself where the Councils' spell intersected it, collapsing in on the colossus like some M.C. Escher balloon. Blinding light surged out, bright enough that even though I had thrown my arm up to protect my eyes, I swore I could see the bones. I figured I had gone deaf from the noise because as far as I could tell it was happening in total silence. It got dark, and the wind died down, and as the spots began to clear from my vision, I could see the battlefield was now empty.

Then a great groaning and cracking noise rumbled from under my feet, as the ice sheet began breaking up in earnest.

I staggered to my feet. McCoy was leaning on his staff catching his breath. I looked over at the pod and saw movement inside, a small hand beating against the inside of the armored plastic window. Someone was alive in there, and that focused my thoughts enough to stumble over. I reached down and popped the hatch release. Inside was a teenage girl, maybe a year or two older than Molly. Her chest had been wrapped in a pressure bandage, a silver cross necklace was clutched in one hand and from the way her mouth moved she had screamed herself mute.

And then she looked at me.

They say the eyes are windows to the soul. In the case of a wizard that's especially true. Normally it takes a second or so for a soulgaze to get going. Incidental eye contact usually won't be long enough to start one. I, however, was exhausted, and she was terrified beyond rational thought. My eyes caught hers like a deer in the headlights as the life of the girl played out in front of me.

Her name was Misato Katsuragi. Her father had been the leader of a research team here. They had found something buried in the ice sheet. They called it ADAM. It had woken up. Light. Fire. Pain. Black voids staring at her. Screams. Daddy no don't leave me daddy NOOOOOOOOO!

Her free hand clawed up at me and I was dimly aware of a tugging on my arm. I turned and made five lurching steps toward Ebenezer before falling face first in the snow.

* * *

I woke up staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. The plaster was cracked and faded, and ruddy sunlight was filtering in from the window. How long had I been out? The last thing I remembered was…

Pain stabbed through my head as I tried to recall. Clashing sensations of searing heat, bitter cold, blinding light and deafening noise resounded in my mind. I struggled to push down the memory and focus on what was around me. "You've had a bad day Harry." I told myself, "Focus on the now, then worry about the then."

I was lying on what felt like an old cot, a rough cotton blanket over me. I wiggled my fingers and toes, experimentally shifted my arms and legs. Nothing seemed broken, but I felt as weak as a newborn kitten. I turned my head and saw a blurry form sitting on a folding chair next to me. I blinked a few times and it resolved into a familiar face. "Sir?" I wheezed.

Ebenezer's head turned up, my old mentor looked about as tired as I felt. "Hoss. Welcome back boy. I was getting worried there."

"How long've I been out?"

"A few hours, I reckon you 'gazed that girl and it messed with your head some."

The girl. Misato. That was her name. The blank spots in my memory started filling in then. "Where is she?" I croaked.

"I'm sorry boy. Likely she's dead by now. The whole place was coming apart and I couldn't get both of you."

I winced at that. I'd made a mistake and it had gotten her killed.

Ebenezer saw my expression and sighed. "Don't go beating yourself up over it boy. I've been around a lot longer than you, and I've made some hard choices that I have to live with." His voice caught then, as though he were going to confess some horrible secret to me, but decided not to at the last second. "Sometimes you can't save everyone." he said somberly.

I turned my head back to the ceiling, Ebenezer's words painfully echoing. I struggled to sit up on the cot. My head swam but I managed to get there. "Where are we anyway?"

"Council safehouse outside Rio de Janiero. I barely got us through the Gate before all Hell broke loose."

"How bad is it, sir?"

A grave look fell over my teacher, "About as bad as it can get Hoss. That thing's contained, I think, for now. I don't know what happened to Mab, but the NeverNever started going batshit on the Way here. Antarctica's... gone. There's coastal evacuations going on everywhere. World's still spinning though, I guess that's something. That reminds me, how'd YOU manage to get there anyway?"

"Those hard choices you mentioned? One of them called in to collect." No need to tell him about Lea right now, we were both shellshocked anyway.

"Aye. Fair enough." He gave a weary chuckle then. "Get some rest. I'll see what I can do about finding us a way back home."

* * *

I woke up to a loud knock at the door. Or was that a hatch since this was a boat? Whatever.

"Agent Dresden?" a voice called from the far side "The Captain would like a moment of your time."

I looked back at the file photo. Misato had survived, but how? And she was now in charge of these Eva pilots? Had her mind just blotted out those events and somehow made herself functional? The questions churned in my mind.

"Dammit Dresden. It's always the girl that gets you into trouble..." I muttered.


	3. Chapter 3

Elsewhere…

There was no need for illumination in the room. The fifteen black monoliths displayed only the SEELE logo, a number and the words (Sound Only)

SEELE 06: Has the incident in Chicago been contained?

SEELE 09: No. Local authorities became aware. It has resulted in a move by the White Council. As expected, they have sent the local Warden to investigate further.

SEELE 11: The information I received was that the director there was involved in an Instrumentality event. We cannot allow the White Council to interfere with the Covenant. If they are aware of our plans…

SEELE 14: They are not. There was no Instrumentality occurrence in Chicago. Marcone had been a useful asset, but it became necessary to have him… liquidated.

SEELE 03: All humor aside, does the Warden pose any threat?

The monolith marked SEELE 01 abruptly changed, revealing the face of Kihl Lorenz. "The White Council has been easily manipulated for years. They are both too complacent in their own power and ignorant of our plans to pose a threat to us. The information they unwittingly provided after the Contact Experiment with ADAM is what has allowed us to proceed as far as we have with the Scenario."

SEELE 07: The Warden is an attack dog, brutish and simple. He will be alone, unprotected and in unfamiliar territory. If he should interfere, it will be a simple matter to put him down like the mongrel he is. There may be some minor retaliation, but my understanding is that many of his own Council would be pleased to see Dresden dead.

Several murmurs came from the faceless forms. Most seemed to be apparently discussing privately with their own aides, but a general voice of assent toward the situation eventually emerged.

Chairman Kihl smiled at that. "Very well, this meeting is hereby adjourned." His image fading as he disconnected. The monoliths began winking out until only two remained in the virtual conference.

SEELE 09: So, Dresden is now involved. I wonder how the Council managed to pull off that little miracle.

SEELE 14: He has always shown remarkable ingenuity, even if he is 'brutish and simple'. That has made him one of my favorite tools. It would be a shame if he were to die and it not be by my hand.

The monolith hologram of SEELE 09 faded then, revealing a handsome man with hair flecked with silver, dressed in an impeccable dove gray suit. His tie was the only oddity. At first glance it could be mistaken as an old, fraying Western cord-style necktie. In fact it was an actual rope noose, far more ancient that it's appearance would indicate. "Indeed, Dresden is one of the few worthy adversaries these days. And what of the Freeholding Lord? Is he truly dead?"

The image of SEELE 14 resolved into the face of an exotically beautiful woman with ink black hair, pale skin and pale blue eyes that seemed almost like mirrors. "No. For a mortal, Marcone possesses shrewdness equal to some of my kin. Faking his death in that manner guaranteed Captain Murphy's initial involvement, which would inevitably draw Dresden into the fold. And it leaves these kine," she waved her hand indicating the absent members of SEELE "unaware of the true threat they now have in their playground."

"Well, neither of us wants these mortals to succeed in the plans of their secret masters. How are we to rule the World if someone else claims the throne?"

Lara Raith smirked at that, then gave a subtle nod and disconnected.

"We?" she said to herself in the now empty holoconference office. "'The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more, no less.' Just because our goals currently coincide does not make us allies, Denarian."

It would not surprise her to learn that Nicodemus Archelone was at that moment thinking the same thing.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Just a Nice Quiet Cruise**

* * *

A couple hours after we left port, Max showed up to convey me to the ready room. I wasn't exactly looking forward to this, my cover story was paper-thin and if anyone started looking hard at it, I figured the best case scenario would be me winding up in the brig.

Second best would probably be me hanging from the highest yardarm.

Pulling a quick escape wasn't really an option either. Because of a wizard's issues normal issues with technology, boats and trains were the common mundane methods we used for long-distance travel, slow but relatively safe.

Still, boats had one flaw us magic types didn't really discuss.

You know those old myths about how vampires and headless horsemen can't cross running water? That's actually true to some extent. Water serves as a sort of magical dampener. Casting in the rain is tricky enough. Working spells over the open ocean is like trying to drink a milkshake through a ten-foot straw. If I had to throw some mojo, it might take several seconds I wouldn't have to draw up the power for it.

So basically I was a prisoner, even if everyone else didn't know it. What bothered me most is that the Council had done it this way. It would have been far easier and faster for me to use the Ways to get to Japan. It seemed like it was critical that I be on this ship for some reason.

Captain Alan Sheppard (yes, he apparently was named after the astronaut) and UN Pacific Fleet Admiral Richard Lancaster were waiting for me in the ready room. They were not pleased by my presence onboard, but someone higher up than them had apparently told them that I was supposed to be there. Alan was particularly angered at how the 'goddammed giant extension cord you NERV bastards bolted onto my flight deck for this cruise has shut down half my air wing.'

I'd seen what looked like a shipping container when I'd boarded. That was presumably the offending piece of equipment. I hadn't known why it was there and if I questioned him as to the reason, my alibi would pop like a soap bubble. I just nodded as if I understood his problem but couldn't do anything about it.

His anger was justified I guess. He was in command of one the most powerful naval war machines ever built, and it had been reduced to a cargo hauler and taxi service for this trip. Holing up in my cabin for a few days seemed like a really good idea now.

Fortunately, that seemed to work. I kept my head down and stayed out of the way. It was terribly dull. I wondered how Molly and Karrin were doing, but setting up a ship to shore call wasn't a good idea. The communication logs were likely monitored anyway.

I asked Bob what he could tell about my new watch to see how it worked. He'd said it charged itself in a manner similar to the force rings I wore, soaking up the excess magic I 'leaked'.

I thought about that. I'd seen non-human magic users handling things like cellphones and computers without problems, so apparently their nature gave them a measure of control over magic mortals didn't have. Older wizards had lived for decades, if not centuries, without modern electronics, so they probably didn't worry too much about it.

But now, with microchips so prevalent, focus objects like my watch would start to become _essential_ to wizards just to walk around in normal society. I wasn't even forty and, assuming I didn't die in some horrible fashion, could potentially live long enough to see the launch of the Starship Enterprise. Hopefully the fact that Ebenezer had spent 20 years working on this was time spent working any bugs out.

"How much charge can this thing hold Bob?"

"Hmm… I'd think a lot. Looks like it's about one or two percent capacity right now. It has an indicator you know."

"I don't see it Bob."

"Turn out the light, teino sha."

I scowled at Bob calling me a moron, but turned out the light. In the darkened cabin, I could see the "1" on the watch face faintly glowing blue, like it had been done in luminescent paint. Yeah, Ebenezer's gift was probably going to be very handy.

* * *

I was glad when the _Ulysees_ carrying Unit-02 and her carrier escort appeared on the horizon. After nearly a week at sea I was starting to go stir crazy. A helicopter was en route, ferrying the Pilot over. It also gave me an excuse to get out of my cabin without Max or one of his goons looking over my shoulder.

The first one out of the chopper was a tall man, a bit unshaven, hair pulled back in a ponytail with a big grin on his face. The girl came next, wearing a yellow sundress, with bright red hair and she was clinging to him in a matter I found just plain disturbing.

I'd seen the 'teen crush on the older man' before. I even was on the receiving end of one with Molly before I'd put a stop to that right quick. This girl was worse, and she was supposed to be the Pilot for a skyscraper-sized robot.

"Ryoji Kaji, NERV Berlin. You must be Dresden. Heard about the Director in Chicago. Awful mess."

"Yeah. I've been stuck on a boat for a week because of it, and everything here is 3 sizes too short for me."

He gave a sudden laugh at that, "The lady here is Miss Asuka Langley Soryu, Unit-02's Pilot"

"Kaaaa~jiii, Why do you have to go on without me? You can't just leave me here with some disgusting nobody!" Asuka pouted.

"I told you Asuka, Commander Ikari wanted me in Tokyo-3 immediately after we got Unit-02's escort transferred."

"Well don't you go running off with some hussy until I get there!" and with that she gave him a hard kiss on the mouth. I nearly lost it then, Kaji was twice her age easily, and was playing with this kid's emotions like she was some kind of doll.

Kaji smiled and reached into the chopper, grabbing a large metal suitcase and a flight helmet. "What can I say, I have a way with women!" then he trotted off to a VTOL jet on the far side of the deck. "You two play nice!"

And here I was thinking the last week on board had a pain. If Asuka was the half prima donna I suspected her to be, I might be wishing for Captain Sheppard to take me anchor dunking in short order. Still, she might be able to get me a little more clued in on stuff I was supposed to know all about. Feeding her ego wasn't the brightest idea I'd had, but at least it was an idea.

"So, Miss Soryu. I've not had the pleasure of getting a close up look at one of the Evangelions. Would be willing to show me Unit-02?"

Asuka turned her head up with a snort, "Well, at least you show some respect to your betters."

* * *

Shortly afterward I was looking at what was the 'Final Production Model!' with Asuka parading over it like it was the grand prize on a game show.

"It certainly is… red."

There was something else about it. It felt… wrong. Like I was staring at some gigantic corpse. The distinct sense of _otherness_ was creepy enough. Then I noticed what the Eva was apparently soaking in. I reached down, hand shaking, and touched the liquid. It was like water, but slightly sticky. And orange.

Asuka had apparently not noticed my reaction, she continued blathering on about how great Unit-02 was. It was the Superior Model with the Superior Pilot and on and on… totally ignoring me for the moment. Which was good I guess. I wasn't really listening and I probably looked paler than Thomas right now. How do you tell a teenage girl you just met that her god-killing abomination is floating in liquid _PEOPLE_.

I hurried out from under the tarp and started heaving my guts over the side. Asuka, having finally realized no one was listening to her monologue, came over with that smug grin of superiority. "Aw. Poor mister Inspector seasick? How did a dummkopf like you get a job like this anyway?"

I composed myself then. "Uggh, Sorry. The smell just kinda got to me."

"Yeah the LCL takes forever to get out of my hair. And why it tastes like blood and maple syrup I'll never figure out."

Oh God, as I curled over railing with another wave of nausea.

"Disgusting." Asuka said, as she turned back toward the helicopter.

* * *

After getting back to the carrier I managed to pull myself together. Looking though the files the Council had given me, the LCL apparently _wasn't_ liquid people, but something produced in Tokyo-3 that the Evas used as both coolant and a shock absorber. It was oxygenated, and the Pilot would actually breathe the stuff during operation. It didn't comfort me. That stuff was what Marcone had been turned into. I was sure of that.

Stars and Stones, what the Hell was going on over there?

"Inspector Dresden?" a voice came through the door. "The bridge just called. Flight 03 from NERV-1 is arriving within the hour. Your presence on the flight deck is requested."

Great, just what I needed. More crazies from NERV. That anchor was looking really comfortable right now.

I went to the cabin's tiny sink and splashed some water on my face. Maybe someone on that flight would just shoot me and put me out of my misery.

* * *

The tilt-wing transport landed smoothly on deck. Asuka had already started walking toward it before the engines had shut down. She had offhandedly mentioned something about the 'Third Child's synch ratio' I think and it had apparently bothered her. I guess it was something Kaji had mentioned before she got here.

Three boys got out first. One I recognized as Shinji Ikari, the other two looked like they might have been his friends. The one with glasses must have been some sort of military buff from the way he kept taking pictures with one of those fancy cellphones. The taller one just looked bored. I was far enough away that a normal person couldn't hear was being said, but I figured I'd better Listen in.

"Cool cool cool cool cool!"

"Calm down Kensuke."

"But Shinji! That's a F-35B Lightning II! They just started deploying those!"

"Woah! Who's that? Is she a Pilot? Damn she's hot!"

"Which one of you losers is the Third Child?"

A young woman got out next, carrying what looked like a laptop. Another voice came from inside the transport. "Go start setting up the equipment Maya, I'll…"

The voice stopped in mid-sentence as it's owner stepped out onto the deck. The eyes looked the same as they did 15 years ago. And once again they locked onto me, a look of recognition and disbelief spreading over her face.

"Major? What is it?"

Crap. I needed a distraction fast or Misato was going to say or do something that would likely get me killed.

I'm not proud of what I did next, and had I had a second to think I probably wouldn't have considered it, but there are situations where you train yourself to act instinctively. This was one of them.

I drew in a fair bit of Power, I didn't need much but I needed it fast. _**"Ventas Servitas"**_ I whispered, sending a gust of wind in the direction of the new arrivals. I wasn't expecting the reaction I got.

It gave me enough of a distraction to get out of sight at least.

* * *

Misato shook her head. She replayed in her mind what she'd seen just before the impromptu peep show. It **WAS** him. No doubt about it. But that was impossible, right?

"Maya? Take care of the kids for a minute. I need to check something."

"Ma'am?"

"I just thought I saw something, won't take a sec!" With that, Misato ran toward the flight tower.

Maya Ibuki, the rather harried Bridge Bunny, sighed, set the laptop down, and summoned up the command voice she rarely used in public. "Show's over people! Touji! Put your damn pants back on!"

* * *

Once below the hangar, I figured the narrow corridors of the carrier would at least give me enough time to hide. Buy myself some time and hopefully get a chance to talk to Misato in private before she said or did something that'd get me killed. Assuming she didn't kill me first that is.

I was on the third deck when I ducked into an empty storage room. I figured it was good enough, and started drawing in Power for a veil when something hit me in the kidney out of nowhere. I dropped to all fours and looked up at my attacker.

Damn she'd been fast.

Major Misato Katsuragi stood just out of my reach, gun leveled at my head, smoke coming from the barrel of her silenced pistol. My duster had stopped the first round but being over the water like I was I knew couldn't bring my shield online in time to stop a second.

"OK Mister. Who the _FUCK_ are you?"

When it comes to trouble, it's always the girl.


	4. Chapter 4

Words echoed in the being's mind, the voice laced with Power. The pathetic native meat-thing was as nothing compared to Him, but the Lillim-spawn had invoked His Name. Resistance was certainly possible, but unpleasant. This foul Place was already gnawing at Him like some sort of parasite.

The command was simple enough though. Retrieve that which was not of this Realm, and destroy those who guarded it. It was almost an insult. Such a trifling task demanded of one such as Him. Still, it would let him be quit of this Place. He stirred from his nest in the ruins of the sunken city, tasting the ocean currents for the scent of His quarry. It was faint, and seemed… tainted. As if it had been somehow corrupted by its time here.

The vast form rose from the depths then, several buildings collapsing into watery clouds of rubble by His passage as He swam into the open ocean.

* * *

**Chapter 4 - We need a Bigger Boat**

* * *

When someone is pointing a gun to your head, there are only two real options you can take. Either be as non-threatening as possible, hoping the gun owner decides not to shoot, or do something incredibly violent and pray you get lucky.

Considering I'd already been shot in the back, even though my duster had stopped the bullet, incredible violence seemed to be the correct answer. It had still _hurt_.

Problem was, I was out over the open water, and still a little drained from my earlier gust of wind. I'd gone this way to hopefully get out of sight of everybody, so of course nobody had seen Misato try and plug me. I didn't hear any crewmen running toward us anyway, so no chance of rescue there. And I honestly didn't want to _hurt_ her. Our first meeting had probably damaged her enough. Might as well try diplomacy.

"What part of 'Shoot first, ask questions later' makes you think I'd be in any condition to answer?" I exclaimed.

My diplomacy has never been Nobel Prize winning.

"The part where rubber bullets won't kill you unless I put one though your eye." she growled as she stepped into the compartment, pointedly leveling the gun so I could see down the barrel.

"Now who are you, because you can't be who I think you are."

I winced a little at that. At this range, even I could make that shot, and I could tell from the way Misato was holding herself she was a skilled marksman. She reminded me of Murphy when we'd first met on that bridge in Chicago and her first encounter with a bona-fide troll. Outwardly calm, but inside a half dozen emotions were threatening to overwhelm her because she was trying to process something that normal people hadn't ever experienced.

It boiled down to telling her some comfortable lie that she might be able to rationalize, or come clean and probably reopen some very old mental wounds. Had she not surprised me with her visit here, the lie might have worked.

"Fine. My name is Harry Dresden. I'm here undercover because a rather evil but important man died a week ago, and I was stupid enough to take the job of figuring out what happened. As for the next question that I know you want to ask..." I sighed a little. "Yes, I was there that day."

Very slowly I lifted my left hand, shaking my shield bracelet out where she could see it. I'd remade it a couple of times since then, it now protected against a lot more than just impacts, but the basic design was still the same. The symbols of protection inscribed on it similar to the faded ones on the earrings Misato wore.

The realization started breaking through then. Her face paled, then her lip began to quiver as she slowly lowered the gun.

"They said you weren't real. That there was nobody like you at the site. That I'd made you up as some kind of coping mechanism. Those… _bastards_ kept me locked up for YEARS thinking I was crazy!"

Misato was about to lose it right then and there. It'd cause enough commotion that someone would take notice. If that happened, my cover was totally blown.

Sometimes though, you have to take a chance and trust someone.

"Look," I said, "I don't have time to explain, but if you tell anyone who I really am, I'm dead. Just calm down and give me a chance. Please."

That's when the voice came over the PA:

"Major Katsuragi, your party is waiting for you in the Officer's Lounge."

Misato looked up then, her eyes watery, but she hadn't started crying yet. I saw in her then the same terrified girl from fifteen years ago She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She took another and seemed visibly calmer. Finally she sighed.

"Shit, Maya's probably wondering where I went and has her hands full with the kids. All right, you'll get your chance. But I still need to think up an excuse for why I ran off like that."

"Tell her I was your college sweetheart that you haven't seen in years."

She genuinely laughed at that. I wondered why.

We got back to where Maya had wrangled everyone. Misato sat down and grabbed a cup of coffee while I introduced myself. Misato figured my idea was good enough to explain that I just looked like the 'lowlife sexist pig that had broken her heart in college and would murder the next time she saw him.'

Asuka tilted her head at that and gave me a critical look.

"He does sorta look like Kaji."

Misato's spit take drenched Shinji from across the table.

**"WHHHHAAAAAAATTTTTTTT? KAJI'S HERE? I'LL KILL THAT SONOFABITCH!"**

Misato had already had one wild emotional ride today. I could tell this one wouldn't end well.

"Whoa! Whoa! He's left already!" I cried as I grabbed her and tried to keep her from tearing the room apart. Shinji, Touji and Kensuke retreated to the far corner. Maya calmly scooted to the end of the table while looking at her laptop and sipping tea. Asuka just had a conspiratorial look on her face. _"Wunderbar…"_

_

* * *

_

Apparently during the confusion of Misato's tantrum, Asuka had dragged Shinji off to go over to Unit-02. Once she'd worked her rage out she'd taken the rest of her group up to the bridge. I meanwhile shuffled my way back down to my cabin and started stuffing cotton up my nose. Misato had gotten a good elbow in on me.

"Oooh, About time you got some action! Gimme all the juicy details!"

"Shut up Bob. And what the Hell are you talking about?" I winced. At least my nose didn't feel broken.

"You didn't just make out like a dirty monkey? Liar! I can see her aura all over you! It's Misato isn't it? You've been mooning over her since you saw that photo. Does the carpet match the drapes? If she dyes her hair it defeats the purpose!"

"What the…" I thought. Bob had always been a little crazy when it came to sex and women, which made no sense since Bob didn't really even have gender as far as I knew. I was just about to tell him to shut up when I felt it.

That little shiver that runs up your spine when you know something's not right.

Just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse.

"Bob." I swallowed, "What is it."

The illusion over the skull flickered and went out, the orange lights in the eye sockets retreating to mere pinpricks. Whatever was out there was enough to scare Bob. "It's big." was all he said.

* * *

I grabbed my staff and started hurrying up toward the bridge. Crewmen were rushing around as 'General quarters all hands general quarters' sounded over the PA. I'd gotten to the hangar deck when I saw the plume of water slice through one of the cruiser escorts like a fire hose though tissue paper. If there was something I could do, I needed to get up where I could see clearly.

I was starting up the ladder to the flight deck when the loudest noise I'd ever heard shook though me. The massive ship _listed_ like it was some toy in a bathtub, and it nearly threw me off the ladder to the deck ten feet below. I clawed my up to the hatch and looked out.

I live in Chicago, so I'm used to being around tall buildings. People tend to gawk a little the first time they go to a big city because of the sheer enormity of the skyscrapers. I actually get it a little myself when I'm in a crowd because I'm tall too.

Skyscrapers don't have size 400 feet though.

When I'd seen it, lying down like it was, I hadn't appreciated the sheer scale of the Evas. Seeing it now, reaching down with one hand and plugging the world's biggest extension cord into it's back while the other held a boxcutter the size of a bus, I realized just how far out of my league I was. Hell's Bells what had I been thinking?

That was when that _thing_ leapt out of the water. It looked a prehistoric cross between a shark and a manta ray, and it was easily three times the size of the carrier. I remember thinking the sheer weight should have split the ship in half. Or capsized us. Or something. I was too busy hanging on for dear life as it got into a shoving match with the big red robot. I soon realized that it was winning, pushing Unit-02 toward the edge of the deck.

I didn't know if Evangelions could swim or were somehow suitable for underwater combat, but it was fighting a fish. A fish out of water would be an easier fight, and if I wanted to do anything I wouldn't get another shot. From where I was, I could see it had something like gills on the underside. It looked sensitive at least. Maybe I could distract it and give the big robot a chance to fillet the beast.

I started summoning up Power. But it was taking too long, we were still too far out at sea and out of the corner of my eye I could see one of Unit-02's feet starting to edge over the side. I augmented my spell with as much soulfire as I dared, but I figured it'd still not be enough. Then I remembered the watch. Bob had said there wasn't much charge but every dreg mattered now. I grabbed the watch in my left hand and held out my staff.

* * *

"Major! Massive energy spike detected!"

"What? From the Angel? Asuka, Shinji! Look out!"

"No ma'am! It's coming from…"

* * *

The abomination before Him had the same scent of what He'd been looking for, but it also smelled of the Lillim meatbags that infested this world. It's power had surprised Him at first, but He would soon get it into the water where He could dispose of it at His leisure.

Wait. What was…

* * *

"Asuka! You got to find the Core!"

"Scheiße, you think I don't know that! Verdammt Engel! Ahh!"

"Asuka, Shinji! Look out!" came over the comlink as the view inside the Entry Plug suddenly whited out.

* * *

I'd screwed up. I was dead, and my screw up had killed everyone. My arm felt like I'd just thrust it into molten steel. My heart beat like it was going to explode. I hadn't even considered the possibility that the watch might hold that much Power. The raw magic consumed all my focus. I couldn't see or hear or sense anything, I just knew it wanted OUT.

The roar of **_FUEGO!_** that came from my throat was like a proclamation from God. It was matched by the bellow of agony from the beast. I sagged in exhaustion against the bulkhead and waited for my vision to clear. I stared agape at what my spell had wrought. I'd been hoping to maybe sting it a little.

Instead I'd burned a perfectly round hole 10 feet wide though the thing like a blast from the Death Star.

* * *

The static from the viewscreen stopped, showing the gaping maw of Gaghiel bearing down on them as it shoved them over the side.

"Asuka! The Core! It's in his mouth!"

"I see it!" Asuka trust the right hand control grip forward as they toppled into the water, the Progressive Knife sparking against, then digging into the red crystal sphere. There was a sharp crack as the Core split and shattered, and the body of the Angel bulged and bubbled before finally beginning to dissolve in the water.

* * *

Spots still dancing before her eyes, Misato picked herself up off the deck.

"Ugh! Everyone still here? Maya? What's the status on Unit-02?"

"One second ma'am, systems are coming back online now."

Misato noticed the umbilical cable spooling out rapidly. "Maya, they're in the water!"

"Yes ma'am! Scanners back online. Pattern Blue has vanished. There's no sign of the Angel!"

"Shinji? Asuka? Are you there?"

The feed from the entry plug flickered on Maya's laptop.

"Y-yes Miss Misato-san." Shinji stammered. "We're still here, but everything's shut down."

"That Angel didn't stand a chance against me, even with the Third's perverted distractions."

"All right! Way to go you two! Just sit tight and we'll reel you in! You're the Catch of the Day!" Misato beamed.

* * *

It had taken me a few minutes to stumble back down into the depths of the ship. I was still trying to process what had just happened. I managed to make it inside my cabin and collapsed onto the bunk. Hands trembling, I stared at the watch Ebenezer had presumably given me as a gift or a tool, but it was so much more than that.

The fact that it was the magical equivalent of plutonium was irrelevant. I'd always known that if I'd ever truly cut loose I could do a lot of damage, so I'd worked hard to maintain control over my anger. But with this… burning down a building wasn't the extent what I could do.

With this, I could redraw maps.

That kind of power didn't belong in anyone's hands, and here I was holding something that carried such an awesome responsibility I wasn't sure my soul could resist the temptation. Ebenezer had told me of some of the things he'd done over the years that had been 'necessary' and I realized now why he'd given the watch to me.

This job would force me to do things that the White Council couldn't. Things that normally meant being executed without worrying about a judge or jury.

The watch was a badge. A symbol of my new, and unwanted, title.

Harry "Blackstaff" Dresden

And a very dark corner of my mind liked the sound of that.


	5. Chapter 5

Commander Gendo Ikari's office was by called many things by the staff: The Crypt. The Mausoleum. Gendo's Lair. Lieutenant Aoba had even referred to it as 'Orcus' Throne' once.

With the sepulchral red lighting from the Sephirotic Tree of Life in the ceiling, one had to wonder what kind of human being would _want_ to work in a place like this. The fact that the Commander regularly spent sixteen hour workdays in there led to all sorts of wild rumors about how he was really a vampire, zombie, robot or sometimes all three at once.

The trademark, unblinking stare Gendo had did nothing to quell those rumors.

Which is why the normally unflappable Ryoji Kaji upon entering the room, even considering the item in the case he carried, began sweating.

"Inspector. I trust there was no difficulty in bringing the item?" the man behind the desk flatly intoned.

"Oh the usual, Commander." Kaji replied, then he nodded toward the case as he placed it on the desk. "Though I am curious as to why this had to be done like it was. Why ship it with Unit-02 when it could have been brought here directly?"

The taller man standing spoke then. "There were concerns that an Angel might attack during transit, Unit-02 was there to provide security in just such an event. It seems those fears were justified, as the fleet was attacked by the Sixth Angel shortly before you landed."

"Everybody all right?"

"While there were significant casualties among the fleet, Major Katsuragi has informed me that Unit-02 performed admirably in the task of dispatching the Angel, and that both Children are fine." Fuyutsuki stated.

"That's good, I'd hate to see Miss Asuka get hurt." That was interesting, Fuyutsuki had said _both_ Children were fine. Had Ikari sent his own son into the lion's den?

"Regarding Pilot Soryu, after her transfer to NERV-1 is finalized, your role as her guardian will no longer be needed. Arrangements have been made to have her placed under the care of Major Katsuragi." Commander Ikari said without emotion.

"Never knew Misato to be much of a mother hen. You sure you don't want me to stick around? I noticed a nice field out in the Geofront that looked like it'd be perfect to grow some watermelons in."

A small scowl drew over Gendo's face then. "Quite certain."

"All right, I'd best be going then." Kaji turned and quickly strode out. As he opened the door, he decided to get one last verbal stab in.

"Hope that guy from Chicago's okay, he seemed like a nice fellow."

The sound from the door closing echoed though the room.

Gendo's scowl turned to a smirk then. "Yes, it would be unfortunate if Mister Dresden had had some… mishap on his way here."

**Chapter 5: Through the Looking Glass  
**

When you're as dead tired as I was there aren't many things capable of immediately bringing you to full awareness, the touch of cold metal to my forehead did qualify as one of them however.

A large pair of breasts being the first thing you see when you wake up qualifies as well.

"Wakey Wakey Mr. Wizard! We got us some celebratin' to do!"

I blinked away the last of sleep and looked around, Misato was leaning over me and had something I couldn't quite make out against my head. She seemed to be in a cheerful mood though. Almost… glowing in fact.

"Uuhgh…" I slurred, I guess she was working off some kind of 'I survived!' rush. I'd had those too, but I'd usually been too tired or mentally scarred by the experience to throw a party over it. I reached up and grabbed what she'd been holding. Thankfully, it wasn't a gun, but rather a can of beer.

"What time is it?" I asked, wondering what had happened since I'd dragged myself back to my cabin after Fishzilla had attacked us.

"It's 0830, the ship pulled into port about half an hour ago and Ritz is busy working on getting Unit-02 offloaded. You've been out cold since yesterday."

Bad thoughts started running through my head as that. A lot of people had probably seen what I did, and apparently my worry was clearly evident on my face.

Misato smiled an impish grin. "Oh don't worry about your little secret. Everybody thinks Asuka and Shinji did something fancy with Unit-02's AT-Field to blind the Angel before taking it out. That's how she's playing it up anyway. Maya might suspect something, but I really doubt she'd think YOU had anything to do with it."

Well that was a bit of a relief. My head started to get into gear then. The kids were apparently okay, my flimsy cover was still more or less intact, and Misato was…

Wait a minute, was she DRUNK and HITTING on me?

I got up out the bunk then, making my way to the cabin's tiny head. Biological imperatives and all. After splashing some water on my face to clear the remaining cobwebs I started thinking. Misato's current behavior made little sense. She was a military officer, sort of, and here she was acting like a sorority girl at a kegger. Was she off-duty right now? Didn't she say they were offloading the Eva though? The answers I had weren't adding up. Start with the basics though.

"I wasn't aware beer was a breakfast food in Japan." I said in utter seriousness.

"Beer's always good for you! You look like you need it anyway!" Misato cried, holding out the can she'd used as an alarm clock on me earlier.

I'd much rather have a Coke and some Tylenol right now. My exhaustion and confusion were beginning to gel into a wicked headache, and a beer on an empty stomach just didn't sound like a good idea. Still beggars can't be choosers. I took the can and opened it, foam spritzing out a little and took a sip. I noticed Misato was watching me eagerly.

Maybe I'd gotten used to Mac's brews. Maybe Japanese people have some genetic mutation regarding their sense of taste. Quite possibly Misato was trying to poison me. Whatever it was, that beer was easily the worst I'd ever tasted. Listerine was better than that. The original kind, not the minty stuff they came up with later. I choked and gagged on the foul swill. Misato looked shocked, as if I'd somehow offended her.

"Ugh. Sorry. Went down the wrong way." I lied. As her expression softened I took the chance to change the subject. "You said the ship had docked? We'd better get going then. The kids are probably waiting on you, and I'm sure I've outstayed my welcome on board. Besides, I owe you an explanation don't I?"

She nodded, gave that grin of the 'I'm not quite hammered yet' variety, took the rest of the beer from me and downed it in one pull. "OOOOOO YEEEEAH!" she exclaimed. "That's the Good Stuff!" Apparently drinking it that fast prevented her from tasting it.

Then she went deadly serious. "I'll be waiting on the dock. I know you probably saved our asses with the Angel, so I'm giving you 10 minutes to hightail it out of here before I call in Section 2. If you decide to stay, we've got time on the way to Tokyo-3 for explanations." Then she walked out of my cabin.

I started gathering my duffle. Misato hadn't been drunk at all. Worse, how long had she been in here before she woke me?

I tried asking Bob what Misato might have been doing in my cabin, but all got from him was "boobiesboobiesboobiesboobies."

Misato was on the dock leaning up against a somewhat battered blue two-door sports car that was probably older than she was. It reminded me of the _Blue Beetle_, and I wondered if she'd somehow gotten that sort of behavior from me.

"First off, Fishzilla wasn't an Angel, it was an Outsider." I told her as I scrunched myself into the rather small seat.

"I'm sorry?"

"Trust me on this Misato. You people probably have _no_ idea what you're really dealing with."

Misato arched an eyebrow at that as she started the car. "And you're suddenly the expert? We seem to have done pretty well so far."

I had to think about how I could explain Outsiders to someone whose experience in the supernatural was seriously limited, and had already been given an explanation that she could rationalize. Now I knew how Murphy felt regarding SI reports.

"Fine, we'll worry about the details of the spooky stuff later. You wanted to know why I was here. Do you know about Director Marcone in Chicago?"

Misato thought for a moment as if trying to place the name. "I think so. He'd had some kind of a stroke or something last week? The North America branch is one of our major suppliers, so I probably saw a memo about it."

I'd expected NERV to keep the details under wraps, I wondered how she'd react to the truth.

"What if I told you that he got turned into the orange goo your Evas soak in?"

Misato nearly ran off the road at hearing that. "He was in an Eva?" Misato cried as she got control of the car.

"No." I said, "He was in his office and just melted."

The confusion on my face was mirrored in Misato's own. Apparently she wasn't sure what might have happened either. "How would Marcone being in an Eva have explained it?"

"Ooookaaay. Ritsuko told me once that when a Pilot is in an Eva and has a theoretical synchronization rate of 400% they'll merge with it and dissolve into the LCL. But if someone just broke down like that…"

I realized what she was getting at. According to Misato, what had happened to Marcone apparently shouldn't have been possible. Then again, I tended to deal with the impossible on a regular basis. And I hadn't had breakfast yet.

"So you don't have an idea as to how that might have happened?"

"Oh I have an idea. Problem is Chicago would have been wiped off the map if _that's_ what it was."

I wondered about what she hinting at, then filed it away for future reference. She had gone quiet, thinking about the implications of what I had just told her. It gave me a chance to consider what she had said in my cabin. How much had she seen on the carrier anyway?

"You said I saved us with the Angel. Weren't the Eva's built to fight those things?"

"They're the only weapons Humanity has against the Angels. Conventional stuff can't penetrate an Angel's AT-Field. I'm surprised that flashbang or whatever you did actually managed to stun it. Diversionary attacks haven't affected the Angels before."

Had she not actually seen what my spell did? "Um, yeah... That's not something I'd like to try again if I can help it, but how exactly did it help?"

"Unit-02 wasn't in the D-Type equipment, if Shinji and Asuka had gone in the water, Unit-02 wouldn't have been able to move."

That was interesting. NERV had obviously been prepared in case of an attack because of the power cable they'd installed on the _Rainbow_, so why hadn't Unit-02 been properly equipped for a fight in the ocean? I asked Misato this, and she couldn't think of an answer.

That led to her asking the other obvious question... "How did the Angel find us anyway? You think it was after Unit-02?"

That one I had a good guess on. "Probably. If the Eva's are all you have to fight with, it makes sense for it to try and take one out." It actually made a lot more sense to try and take one of the _pilots_ out though. Maybe the fact the Angels were Outsiders meant they didn't realize killing a teenager was a lot easier. It was also very possible that someone had TOLD the Angel when and where to attack. That meant there could be someone who _did_ know the Pilot was an easier target. I wasn't planning on pointing that out to Misato right now though, she apparently had enough to worry about.

As we rounded the side of the mountain, Tokyo-3 came into view, skyscrapers gleaming in the sun.

"There it is. Humanity's last line of defense against the Angels, the Fortress City of Tokyo-3. Pretty isn't it?"

It was pretty, though there were a fair number of construction crews visible. "If the Angels want to destroy humanity... why attack here? What's so important about this city? I mean, an invading force doesn't attack a fortified stronghold unless it has overwhelming force, or... there's something inside that they want."

"I'm not authorized to tell you the details on that, but you're right. If one of the Angels were to get past all the defenses here, it's Game Over for the human race."

Having been there when ADAM woke up, I didn't disagree that the Angels had the power to wipe us out, but that didn't answer why they had to do it _here_. "So, where're we going anyway?"

"We're headed to the Geofront. If you know something about the Angels we don't, the Commander's going to want to talk to you."

That sounded ominous. "Um, yeah. And what's going to keep him from shooting me for being some kind of spy? I'm not really a NERV employee you know."

"Relax, I'll vouch for you. You helped us, it's fair that I help you. If the Old Man wants to arrest you, he'll have to arrest me too."

Now I knew we were in probably in trouble, and it amazed me how she could be so naive. From the limited information in his file, I guessed Commander Ikari was like Marcone in several respects. Ruthlessly amoral bastard for one. If he thought for a second I was a liability or a threat he wouldn't hesitate to kill me.

We didn't go directly into the city, instead heading for a large tunnel in the surrounding hills. The command facilities must've been in a secure underground bunker like NORAD or something. The car pulled into some sort of vehicular carrier train and Misato stepped out of the car. I clambered out too as the train started moving, thankful for the chance to stretch my legs. "So, this place probably isn't too big if it's underground."

Misato burst out laughing at that. I wondered what was so funny when the train tunnel suddenly went clear.

"Hell's Bells..."

The train was on an inclined track more than a mile off the ground. The cavern was far, FAR too large to have been made by human hands. The whole of Greater Chicago could likely fit inside the vast space. There was a good-sized _lake_ inside for crying out loud! A surge of terror at the mind-numbing size of the place gripped me.

"Impressed? Shinji was really excited when he first saw it."

I nodded my head dumbly and tried to calm down. My watch might be keeping tech around me functional, but in my sudden panic I'd unconsciously drawn in a fair bit of Power. Normally I could take a moment to ground it out safely, but up in the air like this, the only place I could send it would be into the train, which would almost certainly make something go haywire. That Power started building up pressure behind my eyes, looking for release.

It took another three minutes for us to get to the ground station. I felt like I was in a sauna, and was probably sweating like it too when the train finally lurched to a halt. I pretended to stumble at the sudden stop and took the chance to release my pent-up magic, hoping nothing nearby would explode violently. I did see a transformer nearby spitting sparks though, and the lights on board the train flickered.

"Dresden? You OK? You look kinda pale."

I mumbled something under my breath, trying to pass it off irritation at my feigned clumsiness. Light, _natural sunlight, _was somehow filtering in from the roof. It looked like some valley in a national park. There was a thin haze of clouds obscuring most of the roof. You could almost believe you were on the surface except for a section where large rectangular stalactites hung down like Damocles' sword. I gathered my wits and stood, exhaling deeply. Alice's rabbit hole was NOTHING compared to this.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little overwhelmed at the place."

"You get used to it."

I wondered at what over kinds of things the people of NERV had gotten used to. This place seemed about as far from normal as a person could get without going to the Neverwas. "I guess they do. Let's go see your boss."

If I was going to die in a crazy place like this, might as well get it over with.


	6. Chapter 6

Dr. Ritsuko Akagi was, by just about every definition you could imagine, a classical Mad Scientist. Her work describing the function of AT-Fields alone would have been one gigantic "Fuck You" to the spirits of Newton, Einstein and Hawking, assuming it ever saw the light of day. Science, no… **SCIENCE** was her God and she was the One True Messenger.

So after Unit-02 destroyed the Sixth Angel with apparently little damage, she had a bit of free time to try and reconstruct that inexplicable 27-second gap in the sensor logs, rather than overseeing the repairs. Lt. Ibuki had mentioned a power surge just before a flash of light had temporarily blinded everyone, including causing a saturation whiteout in the entry plug, so nobody had actually _seen_ what had caused it, and it had generated some sort of electromagnetic pulse which irretrievably corrupted all the feeds.

The only data that was recoverable was the raw image data preserved within Unit-02's brain.

Which, now that Unit-02 was secured in the Cages, she had finally had a chance to access.

It was grainy, apparently it had some degradation from whatever had destroyed the other data, but that was easily rectified with imaging software. The holographic display in her office showed what was seen from Unit-02's perspective.

The image of the Angel filled most of the screen, the top of the carriers' island in the bottom left. Misato's face was clearly visible through the bridge's broken windshield as she shouted something into a microphone. Then a brilliant blue-white beam flashed over…no, flashed _through_ the Angel. Pausing the playback, Ritsuko could see the cauterized hole in Gaghiel's back clearly, looking as though it had been shot by the Positron Cannon, or perhaps… an orbital beam weapon? Something NERV was unaware of?

Rewinding a couple of frames was even more puzzling, the beam apparently originated from _underneath _the Angel, though the source was still out of frame. Ritsuko frowned and began the playback again, at one-tenth speed, watching as the Angel bellowed in pain and shoved Unit-02 over the side.

There! She saw it as the Eva hit the water. She stared at the image in disbelief until the forgotten cigarette burned down to her fingers. That was just _**IM-FUCKING-POSSIBLE**_. The thermal bloom _alone_ should have vaporized... **_Where_** did that much power come from? Ristuko reached into her desk and pulled out the bourbon she kept there for "special" occasions, and without bothering for a glass, took a deep pull from the bottle. She was glad no one else was in here to see this because right now she felt like killing something in frustration.

There it was in full 3-D crystal clarity. A tall man, leg and arm wrapped around a stanchion, clinging for dear life and wearing a leather _duster_ for God's sake, had apparently severely, if not mortally, wounded an **Angel **with nothing more than a _**STICK**_.

This defied all logic, all SCIENCE. The Evas were the greatest machines ever devised by Man and if this... person, was somehow capable of fighting the Angels by himself, all her work had suddenly become obsolete. She needed to see him. Now. Preferably over a dissection table because there was **_no way_** on Earth this being was human.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Into the Lion's Den**

* * *

Granted, confronting the head of NERV in his own office was pretty high on the list of "things likely to get me killed today", but subtlety has never been a strong suit of mine. Misato insisted on escorting me, and I suddenly got the disturbing impression that maybe she'd been ORDERED to take me to him. I hoped that wasn't the case. Misato was likely the only person I could trust here, and if she was planning on stabbing me in the back, I don't think I could bring myself to fight her.

We approached the doors to the office, and they opened even before the secretary outside reacted to us. Crap. That wasn't a good sign at all. The office was eerily similar in design to Marcone's in Chicago, but way creepier. The blood red lighting gave it that extra sinister touch. The only thing in the room was the man sitting behind the massive desk, hands tented, amber glasses shining like headlights in the cavernous space.

"Welcome to NERV, Inspector Dresden" Commander Gendo Ikari calmly intoned. "Or, would you prefer I call you Warden?" His features never moved, but I still got the impression of him turning to address Misato. "Thank you, Major. You are dismissed."

Crap. I knew that voice. It was the same voice that had called my apartment and got me started in this mess.

Misato was caught by surprise in mid-salute at this, "Buh? Sir? Inspector Dresden has…"

"You. Are. Dismissed."

Misato looked at me in confusion, "It's ok, Misato. I don't think Chuckles here is going to try anything. Isn't that right?" I inwardly fumed at myself. I'd figured it was a setup from the start. Still, if I had to go down fighting, I'd could at least get Misato out of the line of fire. "Go on, Shinji's probably waiting on you at home. I'll buy you a beer later."

Misato regained her composure, apparently satisfied of my safety at that. "Sir!" she snapped a quick salute which made her chest bounce rather fetchingly, then hurried out of the office.

"Hmm, you must be slipping Chuckles, an Evil Overlord like yourself shouldn't hire someone just to watch their tits jiggle."

Gendo seemed unfazed by my remark. "No. Normally I would have you shot as a foreign spy trespassing in the highest security facility on the planet. Major Kasuragi would, sadly, also have to be arrested as a collaborator for allowing such a breach. She is normally very competent regarding security, so I am intrigued as to how you managed to convince her to bring you here."

"I have a winning personality." I grinned. The man behind the desk might be holding all the cards, but if he needed me for something, killing me was probably not high on his priorites. "Nice office. Very Bond Villain. Should I be worried about lasers in the ceiling?"

Gendo just sat there. The man had a pokerface better than the Merlin's. "As I stated before, I have need for someone of your… unique… talents."

"I'm not exactly a wizard-for-hire you know."

"Your mundane profession would indicate otherwise."

"Yeah, well, you're not exactly someone I'd consider as a client."

"I expected that, though I am able to pay you quite handsomely."

"Richer and more powerful men and women than you have tried to buy me."

"I doubt that, but it seemed polite to make the offer anyway. Director Marcone could have been less obvious in his method of arranging your involvement."

I picked up on that. Hell's Bells. "He faked it didn't he? But that doesn't tell me why he faked it."

"Very astute. I'm sure his reasons are his own, though it is possible through his position he became aware of certain documents from this facility."

Damn, Gendo had manipulated Marcone into faking his death. And to fake it in a way that would get me involved, rather than ordinary cops. Had he somehow manipulated the White Council as well? "So you like pulling strings, eh? What makes you think you can pull mine?"

Gendo pulled out a folder and casually spread the contents out over his desk. Photographs. Of Karrin. Of Molly. Of Thomas. Of Will and Georgia. Of Anastasia. All taken through the scope of a sniper rifle.

I growled, and began drawing in Power, "And what's to stop me from roasting your pompus ass right now?"

"The shaped charges in the floor and ceiling of this room. You could kill me, and perhaps survive the explosion afterward, but your friends and associates would be dead before you could help or warn them."

I stopped at that. It was mutual assured destruction to continue. "So, what do you want."

"There are certain, advantages, to your viewpoint regarding the Angels. The documents the White Council provided after Second Impact have been of limited use."

I remembered the White Council's increased openness to certain high ranking government officials immediately after Impact, it had been a mixed result. Most supernatural threats were still ignored by the general public, but reports of "Impact Sangrophagia" outbreaks in what was left of South America had made it onto CNN.

At least it made it easier for vanilla mortals to deal with what was left of the Red Court.

"So, you want me as a consultant? And you hold my friend's lives hostage to get me to cooperate? Not exactly getting off to a grand start there."

"You are free to decline."

"I think 'no' isn't an option."

"Correct."

The man showed no fear at all. If anything he was smiling like the proverbial cat with the canary. Gendo could probably give Lara lessons on being a manipulative bastard and as much as I wanted to turn him into a pile of ash, he was in the driver's seat. I turned and stalked toward the door, "Your son must really love you to pilot your death machine."

"The Third Child is a tool that I have a use for."

Stars and Stones. The man didn't even acknowledge his own son by name. Human beings could be cruel, but I'd never imagined such heartlessness could exist.

Misato was waiting for me outside, she visibly relaxed as I stormed out under my own power. "I want to know something Misato. How come nobody's shot the bearded bastard yet?"

"That's about the same reaction Shinji had when he got here. So, did you find out anything?"

"Yes and no... and that raises more questions than answers. If you've got about an hour, we'll get that beer. I know I need one right now."

Misato perked up at that, "My paperwork can wait, and Shinji's still in classes, I think I can make the time." She smiled with almost an amorous grin, "I know the perfect place."

"So do I." noting the clock on the wall and doing some quick math. "Do you like baseball?"

* * *

Gendo sat patiently as Fuyutsuki entered from the side door. "Was antagonizing him like that wise? He could have easily killed you."

"On the contrary Kozo, his hatred of me means he now has a reason to stay."

"Do you think he will interfere with the Scenario?"

"Unlikely. In fact, his continued presence here will only prove more useful as we approach the endgame. Everything is moving exactly as planned. Now, I'd like to be alone for a while, old friend."

Fuyutsuki nodded and left the way he came.

Gendo relaxed in his bastion of power. The pieces were falling into place. The Plan was moving forward.

"Soon, Yui. We'll be together again soon."

_"__yes dear." _


	7. Chapter 7

Central Dogma was quiet, save for the occasional clicking of a keyboard. The graveyard shift had left and the normal day staff would be arriving shortly, although one of them was already there.

Maya Ibuki stared at her terminal, then sighed in frustration. Dr Akagi had ordered her to try and recover the data from the battle with the Sixth Angel and after working 12 hours nonstop she was finally ready to declare it a hopeless cause. She yawned as she reached for her coffee. The past two days had really worn on her and was looking forward to Aoba and Hyuga coming on duty so she could go home and get some sleep.

"Hey Maya. Long night?" Shigeru asked as he and Makoto came onto the bridge.

She drained the last bit from her mug and gave a tired smile at the greeting. "You know it. Sometimes I think Akagi-sempai just gives me these kinds of jobs for her own sick pleasure. You guys think you can handle everything without me today?"

"No problem. Should be quiet enough for me to get my reading caught up even." Makoto was carrying a small stack of manga under his normal paperwork as he sat down.

Maya sighed, then started for the bridge doors, glad for the reprieve when Dr Akagi burst through them. Terrified and manic didn't seem quite accurate but it conveyed her expression well enough.

"Maya! Where is he? The man from the ship? The one in the duster with the stick? We need to find him! We need Security to find him! You saw him on the ship right? Put the base on full alert! We have to find him!"

Maya stumbled back at this, noting the strong scent of liquor on her breath as Ritsuko continued ranting like she thought an Angel was loose in the Geofront..

"Ma'am? Are you talking about Inspector Dresden? I think Major Katsuragi was escorting him to the Commander's office."

Ritsuko went absolutely silent at that. She knew what Gendo was really planning. She was even intending to screw the bastard over at the worst possible time just to see the look on the smug prick's face. She had been plotting for YEARS to get her revenge and now this… _thing _had just waltzed in here and quite possibly could bring about Third Impact. Mind control. Had to be. Somehow he'd compelled Misato, and apparently everyone else, into thinking he was supposed to be here. That he was _normal_. The alert hadn't sounded. Had he somehow fooled that as well?

"Give me a diagnostic on the Angel Detection Grid. NOW!"

"Um... Yes Ma'am! Performing diagnostics now." Makoto responded reflexively, running his hand over his terminal. "All systems nominal. There's nothing wrong here."

_Shit Shit Shit…_ Ritsuko thought, she had to do something. Right now she was probably the only person in the base who knew what kind of threat was in their midst.

"Sempai? I have the Inspector leaving the Commander's office now." Maya said as she pulled the video feed to the main viewscreen.

"…_Do you like baseball?"_ came over the audio as it showed Dresden pointedly walking away from the Mausoleum with Misato. Ritsuko just stared in utter disbelief, before the little scientist in her head gave up completely and decided a nap was the best solution to this problem.

"Sempai!" Maya shouted, catching Ritsuko as she fainted.

* * *

**Chapter 7: Pure Ambrosia**

* * *

"Baseball? Are you serious?" Misato cocked an eyebrow at Harry as they entered the elevator.

"You're Japanese. Baseball's like a religion isn't it?"

"To some, maybe, I'm kinda busy keeping the world from coming to an end though, so I'm afraid I don't know much about it."

"Hmm, I was hoping you'd know where Giants played, seeing as how the original stadium site is underwater, so I'm a little fuzzy on a direct route."

"Huh? What are you talking about? The Giants still play in Tokyo-2, but it's the off-season, even if there weren't Angels showing up regularly trying to kill us, there wouldn't be a game today."

"How far?"

"20 minutes maybe? Don't tell me you want to go _sightseeing_?"

"'Mingle some brief folly with your wisdom.' Trust me on this, if I'm right you'll never drink that swill you call beer again, and I'm American. We drink ours cold because it's lousy."

The prospect of some exotic beer Misato had never tried overrode the sheer absurdity of what Harry was implying. "Fine, this better be some really good beer."

I hated to keep stringing Misato along like this, but more than likely her car was bugged, and hexing it to get some privacy so I could tell her what was really going on would probably blow it up. I needed somewhere safe and familiar to bring her into the fold, I also needed to get word to Karrin and the rest about the danger _they_ were in. This meant a little side trip. I was dancing a fine line though, I'd have to make this trip count because I'd probably not get another one.

My dufflebag in Misato's back seat didn't seem to have been messed with. I'd put a simple diversion ward on it to keep Bob safe from idle tampering while I was meeting with Chuckles, but that wouldn't keep someone who was determined to see what I might've brought with me away. I reached back pulled it into my lap, slipping my hand inside to touch the skull.

"Looking for something?"

"Just keep driving, I'm going to rest my eyes for a bit."

Misato hmmphed and set her mind back on driving.

"Bob?" I mentally asked. "Everything all right?"

"Welcome back boss. I assume since you're still breathing you haven't done anything _kotonohoka oroka_. "

"No, I'm pretty much in way over my head and I'd run screaming into the most desolate corner of the NeverWas if I thought I could." mentally relaying my conversation with Gendo. "Did you pick up any vibes while I was gone?"

"Plenty. Being stuck in the bag meant I couldn't see much, but wherever we were, I never want to go back. That place left me _kachikachi_. The singing was the worst part."

"Singing?"

"You didn't hear anything? Figures, you've got meat ears. This is far more primal. You hear it with your _soul_. And if you can hear it, well that's pretty much it. It's sort of like someone saying your true name. And ALL that implies."

I winced at that. Something in the Geofront affected Bob in much the same way as sunlight would. The skull gave Bob some protection but I didn't want to take any chances with prolonged exposure. Worse, if people were somehow able to hear it, it'd probably be just as disruptive to them physically as it would spiritually.

The image of Marcone being tanged flashed though my mind.

"Yeah, that's probably what would happen to you if you heard it." Bob said, "so I recommend staying the Hell away from there."

"Can't do that Bob, I'll have to go this one alone. I'm headed back to Chicago for a bit, and I need you to play messenger boy."

Bob somehow conveyed the mental equivalent of an eyeroll. "Fine. Hey, does that mean I get to stay with Molly?"

I shuddered at the prospect of Grasshopper getting ahold of Bob. Being a spirit meant concepts of 'good' and 'evil' were sort of vague for him, and I knew from personal experience that his Dark Side could be very, very dark. The measures I'd taken to keep that locked away forever seemed foolproof. Still, nothing's infallible.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that, I don't want you making her all Sith Lord behind my back." I felt the car slow as I broke the connection.

"We're here." Misato said as she pulled into the parking area. It was full of course, parking in Japan being at a premium, but the actual stadium area was free of people at the moment. "So you want to tell me what this is about?"

"Just drive around for a bit, please." As she went around apparently looking for a parking spot I touched the pentacle at my neck and concentrated, looking for a connection. I felt a faint tug on the third pass through. "There we go." I muttered. "See if you can find a spot near here."

Misato casually pulled up and parked in the nearest place that didn't block traffic, though it did block four other cars, then whipped out a placard stamped with the NERV logo. "I park wherever the hell I want. Now I think it's time for some explanations."

I got out of the car and stared walking toward one of corner stairwells, feeling the tug grow stronger. "Yeah, this is good. Like attracts like. I can work with this. Come on Misato."

Opening a portal to the NeverNever was easy. Finding a Way through it to where you wanted to go was hard. Most Ways had been fairly established paths with more or less fixed end points. That had changed with Second Impact and the creation of the NeverWas. Many of the old routes were now inaccessible at one or both ends, and finding and charting new Ways was difficult since they tended to change over time.

My mother had been a master of Way travel though, and she had given me a self-correcting map of sorts. One of the things I learned while experimenting with it was how the Ways changed, and how it was similar to thaumaturgy. If you wanted to go from point A to point B using a Way, finding a similarity between points A and B made it easier. In this case it was still tricky, as I wanted a fast direct route, as opposed to a naturally formed one. But I had developed a spell to help with this sort of thing a couple of years ago.

**_"Aparturum. Aparturum Claustrum."_**

Misato came up behind me and just stared at the hole that formed in the wall of the stairwell. Even though she knew I was a wizard, her reaction to me actually doing magic wasn't surprising.

"What the FUCK!"

"You wanted explanations on all the spooky stuff I deal with. Some of them I have to actually show you." I reached out and took her hand. "It's safe, trust me."

We stepped though the portal.

* * *

"Sir, we've just lost the tracking signal from Major Katsuragi's cell phone. Shall I send in a ground team to her last position?"

"No, remain on standby. I have other assets to utilize." A white glove pushed a button on his desk as he connected to another line. "Captain, are the assets for protocol 47 prepared?"

"Yes sir, the assigned targets can be eliminated promptly at your command."

"Good. Have local Section 2 begin monitoring for transponder Alpha-Sierra-Tango 7934. Inform me when you have that signal and begin surveillance. Do not act on protocol 47 without my express order."

"Yes sir. Sir, signal just appeared at grid 17 – 32. Wrigley Field."

"Very good." Gendo switched to a third line.

"Fuyutsuki. How is Dr. Akagi?"

"She's under sedation in the medical ward. It seems she discovered what Dresden is capable of."

"Hmm, not unexpected. Make certain the files are purged. What sedation was used?"

"Midazolam, Dr. Akagi was inebriated so the combined effects should effectively erase her short-term memory until we can properly brief her."

Gendo ended the call, then smiled and tented his hands. "Exactly as planned."

* * *

As we stepped through to the other side, I was greeted with the cool night air of Chicago.

"_**Claustrum minutus."**_ I whispered, shrinking the portal down to a pinprick in the wall. The two-way portal would only work as long as I maintained the spell, and keeping it full sized would be far too taxing. My spell allowed me to make short-term direct Ways to pretty much anywhere on the planet, as long as I didn't have to sling much mojo while I maintained them. Being artificially created though, they weren't exactly something I could use often. I was basically tearing a hole through the hedge maze of the universe, and the scabs that formed were much tougher to cut through for several weeks afterward. If I didn't use this Way back, I'd need to take another route to Japan, and that might take several hours to find and traverse.

Misato just stared at me like I'd grown two heads.

"What the…did you just _teleport_ us?"

I thought about how to describe that we actually went through about an inch's worth of the NeverWas to get here, then figured simple worked best. "More or less. Welcome to Chicago. I'll get us a cab."

* * *

After a quick call from a payphone, I flagged down a cab. Fifteen minutes later Misato and I were walking down the steps into Mac's. Surprisingly, we were the only people there. Even though it was late at night the place would normally have at least a dozen people inside.

"Quiet night, what's up?"

Mac simply shrugged and "Doing inventory. Closing early."

That practically floored me. Mac's usual response was one or two syllables. Actual grammar was nearly unheard of.

"Misato, you want anything to eat? Mac's sandwiches are to die for." I noticed Misato had an odd dreamy look on her face. She seemed almost… aroused by something.

"Misato? Are you all right?"

She inhaled a deep breath, savoring the smell, like she was trying to drink the AIR. Her mouth was visibly watering.

"Um. Two pales and a steak sandwich Mac."

Mac pulled a couple of bottles out from behind the counter, expertly thumbed off the caps then started back to the kitchen.

"Misato?"

"Can't you smell it?"

Mac's place had the same smell as always, a rich blend of beer, wood smoke and grilled meat, I guess in this case familiarity meant I had missed something.

I handed Misato one of the beers, half expecting her to down it like a frat boy on spring break. I was shocked to watch her sit down with it in both hands, murmuring something under her breath. Was she…_praying_? She then took the bottle and slowly, languidly, drank it. She did it in a single pull all right, but she took nearly a minute to do it.

It was disturbingly erotic to watch.

So of course that would make it the most awkward possible time for Murphy to come in.

"Am I interrupting? Or should I be worried about some magic whammy on Mac's beer again?"

It had been over a week since I'd seen Murphy. Seeing her again gave me a little sense of relief, even though I knew I'd unwittingly put her and everyone else I cared about in, dare I say it, mortal jeopardy. Murphy's comment brought me back down to earth, and Misato had a glazed over look of pure bliss from her beer.

"I don't think the beer's been whammied, I think she's just never had a proper beer before. Karrin Murphy, Misato Katsuragi." introducing the two to each other.

"That's Captain Murphy, Chicago PD to you, and I'm well aware of who Major Katsuragi is." Murphy stared daggers at me, "Unlike you I can use a computer." She turned to Misato, "The fact that Harry brought you here means there's a shitstorm of trouble brewing that I need to know, or should I just haul you in now for the half-dozen laws you've broken?"

That snapped Misato out of her reverie, "I'd like to see you try that little missy."

Crap. I'd royally screwed up. Misato had just inadvertenly pushed Murph's Berserk Button. I hadn't considered the possibility that these two might take an instant dislike to one another. Right now my problem would be keeping them from getting into a full-on catfight.

"Ladies? Please? We can't stay in town long and I need to lay out everything for both of you." I glanced down at my duffle with Bob inside, Murphy gave a tiny nod to me which told me two things: 'Yes, you have something in the bag for me' and 'No, I'm not going to give this bitch an ass chewing, I'll save it for you later.'

Murphy turned her glower to 'low simmer', sat down and started off.

"Ok, first thing is Marcone's not dead."

I looked at Murphy with genuine surprise that she had found out before I'd said anything.

"The Outfit's operating like Marcone's still in charge. We suspected that right after you left Harry, and that was way before the tech guys determined the security tape had been altered. Second, you're back in town, with NERV's tactical commander in tow, which means someone's pulling strings behind _her_ back. Third, you don't look like you've burned down any buildings lately so that means you're working with NERV for some reason. And fourth, since I know you, that probably means there's a gun pointed at my head to make you cooperate. That about sum it up?"

One of the things I love about Murphy is that she's often thinking way ahead of me. I took a bite of my sandwich and nodded. Misato just stared at how Murphy had explained the situation in seconds.

"Ok, wait. What? I know the Commander is a manipulative bastard, but he is trying to save the world from the Angels."

"Those aren't Angels, Misato. I've dealt with Angels before and I'm pretty sure of that. I think they're some sort of Outsider."

"Huh? What's an Outsider?"

"Think H.P. Lovecraft stuff. Eldritch Abominations."

Murphy just shivered at that, those super ghouls from the White Court coup attempt hadn't been pretty.

I sighed. Time to give Misato the crash course in my world. "Ok, think about every sort of horror story and supernatural crap you've ever heard of. Easily ninety percent of that has some basis in truth. Vampires, zombies, werewolves, ghosts, I deal with that stuff on a pretty regular basis."

Misato just kept looking at me like I was a crazy person. Murphy took advantage of that. "His Fairy Godmother lives in his building." jerking a thumb at me.

"I think I need another beer." Misato said.

* * *

Murphy and I spent the next half hour reviewing notes and trying to figure out a way to get out from under Gendo's thumb while Misato started getting reasonably hammered. Getting clued in to just how much weird stuff people ignore tends to do that. Oddly, I was worried because I probably would have to drive when we got back to Tokyo. Hopefully she wouldn't be too blitzed to give directions.

She didn't seem to notice me leaving my bag (and Bob) behind with Murphy when we left, and I managed to get her through the portal back to Japan without too much trouble.

But the two goons in black suits by Misato's car wasn't something I wanted to see.

"Hi fellas. Sorry about this, I think she's had enough for one night."

"Inspector. We're here to escort you and the Major back to Tokyo-3. Commander Ikari has assigned me as head of your security detail."

"Really? And if I don't think I need one?"

"Sir, bear in mind that the Commander's wishes are non-negotiable, and I've been instructed to remind you of the terms of your continued presence at NERV HQ?"

Translation: "Don't go sneaking off again and I won't have my people put a bullet through your friend's heads. Signed - Gendo Ikari."

"Fine, can you give me a hand with putting her in the car? I don't think she's up for driving back. Also, no offense, but I'm going to need a place to stay."

"An apartment in Major Katsuragi's building has already been assigned for you." He handed me a small envelope. "Keys and your new ID card, Inspector. There is a linked expense account."

Well, I might have been stuck in a cage, but at least the bastard had gilded it for me. I looked at the agent who was now my 'new best friend'. Average height, shaved head, but otherwise fairly nondescript. He had moved though with the kind of ease that said 'I am not to be messed with.'

"What's your name?"

"Agent Wong."

Sometimes you have to laugh at the absurd.


	8. Chapter 8

Misato had barely gotten in the back seat of the SUV before she started snoring. I heard Wong give a brief resigned 'mmph' and arched an eyebrow at him.

"This happen a lot?"

"Yes. Major Katsuragi's security detail is often tasked with escorting her home."

Well that explained a lot. Misato dealt with the sort of inhuman terror the Angels brought about by getting blitzed. My telling her about all the supernatural crap I deal with had invoked the same response. "So, you're used to this sort of thing?"

"My job is to serve as security for NERV personnel. Whether I believe they are properly qualified for their position is irrelevant, it is my duty to protect them. In that regard, I have been informed of your… unique… talents, but not the specific details thereof."

"I'm just an ordinary guy." I replied noncommittally.

"Who can burn down a building apparently." Wong responded.

"So can someone with a lighter." I wasn't about to tell him exactly what I could pull off, since anything I told him would go likely back to Chuckles.

He nodded in understanding. "Fair enough. 'A secret weapon must be just that, a secret.' I am tasked with your safety however, and my not knowing what you are capable of may have unfortunate consequences."

"I'll deal with that bridge if we get to it."

The rest of the ride back was uneventful, though the DHL van in the parking lot of the apartment building seemed ominous.

"That better not be my stuff from Chicago."

* * *

**Chapter 8: Settling In and Rei-velations**

**

* * *

**

It turned out that the movers had dropped off Asuka's things. I was amazed at how a 14-year old had even accumulated this much stuff, they had managed to pile Misato's small apartment full of boxes. Security must have let them inside.

"This is going to go over well when Misato wakes up." I muttered as carried her to the couch. "My place?"

"The apartment above. If you'll excuse me, it seems I'll need to arrange for some storage." Wong turned and headed back to the elevators.

Interesting, Wong wasn't aware of the movers. That meant someone else had let them inside. There hadn't been a response when we'd come in, so when I heard a shuffling from the kitchen, I immediately went for my gun and started readying Power in my shield bracelet.

Offensive magic is very, very fast but when you're in a combat situation, but there tends to be a lot of collateral damage. It also tends to leave people in no condition to answer questions. Smoldering piles of ash aren't too talkative. Guns at least have the option of being potentially less lethal, and there's also a significant intimidation factor.

So when a rather large penguin waddled out, a beer and newspaper under one flipper, turned to look at me, gave a loud "wark!" that seemed to convey "Do you mind?", then went on into the bathroom like this was an everyday occurrence and closed the door behind him, my brain had to do a double take.

"OK Harry, that's not the weirdest thing you've seen, but it definitely ranks in the top 5." I told myself, as the front door opened.

"I'm home." Shinji called as he slipped his shoes off in the entry. I managed to holster my gun before he noticed me. "Oh! Um… Inspector Dresden is it? What are you doing here? And what's with all the boxes?"

"Misato kinda got carried away at the bar. As for the boxes, I think you're getting a new roommate."

Shinji idly looked over the stacks of boxes in the apartment, hung his head in realization at exactly who was moving in, then grabbed a box to presumably move it out of the way. Asuka came to the open door right then.

"What the Hell do you think you're doing, Third?"

"I was just getting these boxes out of the way."

Asuka gave a glare of suspicion. "Reeeeally. And I come in to find you holding the box with my unmentionables in it?"

The label had been against the wall and Shinji hadn't seen it, but now that he'd turned around the word 'Unterwäsche' was clearly written on the side.

The explosion of Germanic curses was enough to wake the dead, or at least the very drunk.

* * *

"Well, this sucks." Shinji sighed after our eviction by Misato under the premise of 'Us girls need to talk'. "Asuka's just arrived here and thinks the whole world is either plotting against her or exists to serve her. I know she's smart and has trained all her life to be a Pilot, but that doesn't give her the right to treat everyone else like crap." He looked far older than his age right then. "Having to deal with her at school and Headquarters is bad enough, now she's going to be _living_ here? Whose idea was that? And why does she have so much stuff?"

"Believe me kiddo, I've met worse. C'mon, I haven't seen what my place looks like yet."

We went upstairs to my new home away from home. Mine had an actual key lock, not the hotel-style card readers that were on every other apartment.

"So… this is your apartment?" Shinji asked.

"For the time being." It looked the same as Misato's place, though much emptier. The living room had a large and surprisingly comfortable couch futon. The kitchenette had a gas stove and fridge. No TV or computer, but there was a box full of candles and several battery powered LED camping lamps. When setting this place up, NERV must have taken my problems with electronics seriously.

"It's very… retro I guess." Shinji said, picking up handset of the rotary phone. "I think this is older than my father."

"I have certain quirks. Hmm, pantry's empty. Guess I'll be eating takeout."

"You should have dinner with us. I'm not really much of a cook, but it's better than Misato's instant curry."

Interesting, Shinji barely knew me, but he was offering to be a host. Very traditional Japanese behavior if I remembered correctly. There was something else though, like he was… looking for approval. Yes, that summed him up perfectly. I realized then that Shinji wasn't unlike me when I was his age. He was looking for a father figure in his life and Gendo was about as far from that as you could get. In this case, the apple had been shot from the tree with a cannon.

I gave my best formal bow to him. "I would be honored to be your guest tonight."

That's when we heard Asuka's shriek from downstairs. We got to the door and saw Asuka, who was in a towel for some reason, pointing at the bathroom and stammering "P-p-ppen… pen…"

"Yes, his name is Pen-Pen." Misato said, giving the bird a drunken hug, to which he responded in typical bird fashion (namely flapping wings madly and 'wark'ing a lot)

Asuka locked herself in the bathroom in hysterics, Pen-Pen went into the kitchen and shut himself in a what looked like a mini-fridge. I was left wonder at how something that had flippers instead of hands could operate doors so easily. Misato went back to the couch and quickly fell asleep again. Shinji gave that sigh again and started on dinner. I figured I'd just be in the way and decided to take a look around.

The choice of putting me in the same building as Misato, Shinji and Asuka made sense quickly. Section 2 was using maybe a third of the apartments. Oddly, I didn't see any indication of where the mysterious Rei Ayanami lived. As a Pilot, it'd make sense to have her under as much security as Shinji or Asuka. Her file had mentioned she was Gendo's legal ward. The thought of Chuckles living with a young girl had left me with some very disturbing mental images.

Shinji's cooking was quite good, but beyond that dinner went about as expected, if you were expecting a dysfunctional sitcom family dinner. By the time I managed to excuse myself, Shinji and Asuka seemed just about ready to kill each other. As I lay down staring at the ceiling, I had to question myself. What was I really doing here? Gendo had my friends and family under the gun, literally. The White Council had sent me in more or less blind, I figured this was really a scheme of the Merlin's to get me killed through my own stupidity or something. Misato, Shinji and Asuka needed serious therapy more than anything else. Oh yeah, and I'm supposed to help Save the World from the 'Angels'.

"I know I'm supposed to be a detective, but would it really hurt you guys to give me a freaking clue every now and then?"

* * *

Awareness came back slowly for Ritsuko Akagi. First was the smell, the faint odor of antiseptic. The steady beep of the EKG monitor was next, chirping away in time with her pounding headache. Had there been an accident? Her memory was fuzzy… something was in the base? An Angel attack? Her limbs felt heavy, but not numb. Nothing felt broken. Slowly, she opened her eyes. The white fog of her vision clarified to the soundproof tiles and fluorescent lighting of the Geofront's infirmary. She was thirsty, but not terribly so, she hadn't been unconscious long if that was any indication. She turned her head to see Sub-commander Fuyutsuki in the door.

"Welcome back, you gave the bridge staff quite a scare there Doctor."

"Uggggh… What happened Kozo?"

"You ran out onto the bridge yesterday in a drunken, manic state, ranting about how an Angel had penetrated into Central Dogma. It was feared you had suffered a breakdown similar to your mother."

Her eyes went hard at that, "Don't. Talk. About. My. Mother." she growled. Then she relaxed and closed her eyes. "I… don't remember… yesterday is all a blur."

"Obviously no such incident occurred, as we are all still here. The doctors have informed me that it was most likely due to stress from overwork. They'd like to keep you here for another day for observation, barring another Angel attack. However, if you feel up to it, there is a personnel matter that you need to be briefed upon."

"SEELE's sending us technical staff? Hah! More likely another one of Kihl's spies." Ritsuko propped the bed up to a better sitting position. "You need me to arrange an 'accident' for the poor bastard?"

"No, Commander Ikari has given explicit orders that you are to not interfere with Mister Dresden in any way." He handed over a small electronic tablet that displayed **Throne Clearance Only**."I suggest you read over this carefully."

She pressed her hand against the touchscreen and stared into the small camera at the top of the pad. Throne access required a biometric palmprint and retinal scan to unlock. Something this classified on a remote display was very unorthodox though. Scanning though the file, her eyes widened in astonishment and horror as it jogged her memory.

"He's a **_WHAT?_**"

* * *

Saturday morning, which for me normally means a good run along Lakeshore Drive, weather permitting. I run for two reasons. First, as a wizard I'll potentially live a very long time, so staying in shape's a good idea. Second, and far more important, most of the things I deal with are supernaturally strong, fast and agile, so I make damned sure they have to _work_ for a meal if I'm ever on the menu. Lakeshore Drive however was a good 8000 miles away at the moment, which meant I got to try running through the hills of Tokyo-3.

It barely took a half hour before my knees were killing me.

I went over to a bank of vending machines. The things were everywhere, and sold practically everything. I wondered briefly about the army of workers that would be required to service them all, then I noticed all of them used card readers instead of cash slots.

Hmm. My NERV ID was supposed to have an expense account attached so I wondered how that was going to work. I'd never had any luck with credit cards. The magnetic stripe would go bad within hours usually. I pulled it out and noticed that instead of a stripe on the back it had what looked like a scrambled black and white checkerboard. "Huh… A barcode." Clever, if a bit Orwellian.

I sat down on a nearby bench with what I assumed was a can of mango-flavored water. It was still early morning but heat shimmers were coming off the road and the incessant cicada chirping was reaching 'headache inducing loud'. That's when I saw her. A young teenage girl was across the street, dressed in a school uniform. Not too unusual, except that school wasn't in session today… and she and I were only people within sight… and she had light blue hair.

I blinked and shook my head. Where had everyone else gone? I looked again and she'd vanished, and the street was back to its normal light early morning traffic. Had I just imagined it? More importantly _**why**_ had I imagined that?

"Curiouser and Curiouser." I muttered.

The rest of the morning was spent getting supplies for my new apartment, along with a few new clothes. Shopping was never one of my strong suits, but here I was repeatedly informed that I could expect what I'd bought to be waiting at my place when I got there. Service with a smile. Of course I'd have to carry the stuff I _really_ needed so that Wong's goons, who I noted were quite good at covert surveillance, wouldn't paw through it.

I was heading back when I saw Shinji leaving the building with a couple of bags.

"Morning Inspector. Been busy?"

"Please call me Harry. I'm just getting a feel for the city, picking up a few groceries and stuff." I lifted my 'goodie bag' of odds and ends.

Shinji gave me a skeptical eye, most of the things in the bag were from hardware and craft stores.

"You could have asked me to show you around."

"You're young, and you've got better things to spend your free time on than playing tour guide to someone like me. What's that?"

"Ayanami's prescriptions. She was released from the infirmary this morning."

"What happened?" My earlier experience suddenly became ominous.

"Ramiel did a lot of damage to Unit 00." Shinji pointed to what I had first assumed was a blue glass skyscraper under construction on the far side of the city. "Rei wasn't physically hurt, but when you're in the Eva, anything that happens to it feels like it's happening to you."

Sympathetic feedback for the Pilots. That was a useful tidbit of information. More importantly it made me even angrier at what that bastard Gendo was doing to these kids. I'd been through enough real pain in my life, and my left hand began clenching on it's own accord. I noted the size of the bag. Just how many drugs was that poor girl on? "Surely that's not all prescriptions, what else you got there?"

"Oh… um… I thought Rei might like a proper meal after all that hospital food." Shinji actually blushed a little.

At least that part of him seemed normal. Normal in this crazy town was a good sign. We started walking towards Rei's apartment, and as we crested a hill I got a better look at what I now knew was the building-sized corpse of an Angel being slowly dismantled, complete with a neat hole burned through the center.

"I guess someone rolled a critical hit."

Rei's apartment building was a surprise. It was, well… vacant. And had apparently been that way for some time. Oddly, none of the normal graffiti and vandalism you'd expect on an abandoned building in a city was present. Nobody came here. Even the Section 2 agents following us were keeping a respectable distance. As soon as we entered the courtyard I could tell why. It felt the same as a graveyard.

Graveyards are unfun places. When that much death and spiritual energy is collected in one place it leaves a sort of psychic taint on the area. It doesn't have to be haunted, and almost everybody picks up on this on some subconscious level, animals more so. Don't believe me? Take your family pet to the local graveyard sometime and note the reaction.

There's also a reason graveyards have walls and fences, even if they're only symbolic. They aren't there to keep anything out, they're there to keep stuff _in_.

"Why does Rei live in a place like this?"

"I don't know, I guess I haven't really thought about it."

We went to the third floor and I could sense the wrongness of the place getting stronger. Shinji didn't seem to notice. The fact that whatever aura was around here was emanating from one spot started the gears turning in my head.

Rei's apartment was pretty much in the center of the building.

That meant Rei was most likely the cause of the disturbance.

Normal human beings don't make psychic dead zones.

I started drawing in Power for my shield, getting it ready to throw at a moment's notice. Shinji might think she's normal and at a guess, had the normal teenage feelings for her. I, however, knew of all kinds of supernatural baddies that do a pretty good job at passing for human. I was still surprised when she opened the door. Pale skin. Red eyes. Blue hair. It was the girl I'd had the vision of before.

"Hello, Pilot Ikari. Who is this?" Despite her soft voice, it was crystal clear.

Shinji bowed politely, "Ayanami, this is Inspector Dresden. He's just transferred here from America. May we come in?"

I bowed stiffly, "It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Ayanami."

She returned our bows. "Please come in."

Shinji stammered a little, "I brought you your medicine, and there's some miso soup here in case you were hungry."

"That is very kind of you, Shinji."

I tuned out the rest of their conversation to get a good look at the apartment. Spartan was one description. Crackhouse might be more accurate. Minimal lighting, though that might be because of Rei's complexion, or possibly be the cause. Stuffy, the place needed a good airing out. There was less furniture than my place had. No sign of any personal effects… it looked like all Rei did here was eat and sleep. Wait. On the dresser was a cracked pair of amber glasses. What the Hell? My initial take was that Rei had less personality than a Barbie Doll, so why was the only personal effect in this place something that belonged to the World's Greatest Bastard?

I then looked at the two of them, and my brain got wrapped up in what I saw. So many things fell into place all at once I almost kicked myself for not guessing it before.

Their faces had the same profile. Put a brown wig on Rei and get her in a tanning booth and the resemblance would be obvious.

The eyes and hair had thrown me off a bit, but the pale skin, the emotional vacuum that seemed to surround her, she had even had that not-quite-human economy of movement when she let us inside. All of those were tell tale signs if you knew what to look for. Most people would just think albinism and dismiss it, but most people aren't trained observers whose brother is also a member of the White Court.

Hell's Bells, I hoped I wouldn't have to be the one to tell Shinji that he had a crush on his vampire sister.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 **

When you're a wizard, inevitably you're going to wind up knowing things you weren't meant to. Watching Shinji be the typical awkward teenager with "feelings" toward Rei, was one of them. At least it was just squick as opposed to the kind of soul-shattering terror I usually had to deal with.

Rei probably didn't know about who and _what_ she really was either. Whites didn't actually become vamps until they killed for the first time, and they enjoyed keeping their kids in the dark. Pretty twisted right? The kids would start getting all kinds of urges that they probably wouldn't understand, and usually wound up accidentally eating the first person they slept with. I'd narrowly escaped just such an experience.

Gendo, that smug bastard, knew. I had no doubt in my mind of that. Hell, he'd likely admit to it with that damn poker face of his that says, "Yeah, what are you gonna do about it?" Confronting him would be pointless.

I guessed Fuyutsuki, who I now realized bore a surreal resemblance to Peter Cushing, wouldn't talk either. I'd only seen the man the one time in Gendo's office, but something about him had told me that his loyalty was unquestionable.

Who else would know? Rei's doctor probably. That could explain the piles of pills Rei was taking. Mood drugs to keep her inner Demon bottled up, at the expense of turning her into an emotional zombie. Shinji and Rei had gone into the kitchen, and the pharmacy bag was sitting on the counter. A quick peek would…

"Did you require something, Inspector?" came the soft yet utterly creepy voice. Rei hadn't turned around, but I swear she was staring at me with those red eyes.

Hell's Bells, had she _read my mind_?

"Um… no, actually I was just about to leave. Shinji was going to show me around town."

Shinji began to protest, "But…"

"No buts, Shinji. Besides, I'm sure Rei still needs some rest. We should get going."

That's when Rei touched his hand. "It is all right Ikari."

"O-Ok then." Shinji gave that resigned sigh of his then started for the door. I was right behind him when Rei spoke up. "Mister Dresden?"

I answered without turning. "Yes?"

"You are a very poor liar."

I could feel her gaze on my back now, and it took every ounce of willpower for me to not meet it. It was that compelling.

"Maybe I should take lessons from Gendo then." I quipped, then I hustled to the stairs trying very hard not to break into screaming panic.

"You mind telling me what that was about?" Shinji shouted once we'd gotten out of earshot of the building. "I had heard Americans were rude by nature but…"

"Shinji, I'm sorry, but there's something about Rei…"

"You just met her! You don't know anything about her!"

I blinked, this was the first real sign of anger I'd seen in Shinji. "You're right, I don't. But, I can make a few guesses. For one, you care a great deal for her."

"When first I came here, I had no idea what my father did. I don't think he had said five words to me in the past five years. Then he tells me I have to fight an Angel in Unit 01, without any idea of how I'm supposed to do it. I told him he was crazy. He called me _**worthless**_ and rolled Ayanami out on a gurney in front of me. She couldn't even stand! She would have DIED if I didn't Pilot. What was I supposed to do?" He was fuming at the memory and it shocked me to see just how much pent up rage this kid had.

Shinji took a minute to calm down. "So yes, I guess I do…care… about her. I…I'm not really sure why. And... and..." Shinji's voice trailed off.

"You feel like you need to protect her." I finished.

"Yes." Shinji whispered.

I sat down on a bench and motioned Shinji over. "Do you feel like you're doing the right thing? I mean, what with being a Pilot and all. Forget if people are telling you this is what you're _supposed_ to do. Does it seem **right** to you?"

"I... I'm not sure. With the Angels and all, it's just so scary... but I can't just run away."

I gave a grim smile. "Damn, you're a lot like me, you know that?"

"Huh?"

"Willing to do something crazy instead of sitting back and doing nothing. That's one of the bravest things a person can do, and the fact you're not sure why you do it means you know in your heart it's the right thing to do, even if your head's telling you otherwise."

"I'm not brave. I'm just..."

I interrupted. "Quit moping, I believe in you. I'm sure Misato does to. Now come on, I've got to ask her a few things about Rei."

We got back to the apartment just after noon. I had to take care of a couple of little things and asked Shinji to give me about ten minutes. I got back to their apartment to see her apparently just now waking up. Good, what I had in mind worked better if she was still sleep muddled.

Agent Wong came to the open door. "That was a rather unnecessary method of getting my attention Dresden." Wong dropped what used to be some very expensive looking surveillance equipment that I had just hexed into scrap on the walkway outside.

"Yeah well, I needed you to answer couple of questions, I was in a hurry and I didn't have your phone number. Besides, I figured you'd be more inclined to answer in front of your boss."

Misato didn't exactly exude 'professionalism' at the moment, what with being in a tank top, shorts and giving a loud belch as she finished off her first beer of the day.

"Major Katsuragi is not my 'boss'."

"But she is the Tactical Commander for this place, so I'm guessing she has authority even if she doesn't realize it." I grinned.

Wong just scowled at me. Misato went "Bwuh?" and scratched herself in a very unladylike fashion. Shinji just sighed and fed Pen-Pen.

"Wong, you know about the security protocols for all the critical NERV personnel. So why does Miss Ayanami not have the same level of security as Shinji or Misato here? Namely, the fact that there are no Section 2 agents in her building."

Wong just stood in the doorway silently.

I shrugged, "I guess the penguin's got his tongue. It's a pretty obvious security hole, why does it exist in the first place?"

He shifted uncomfortably as Misato turned to stare at him.

"How's this then, did you make someone aware of this security gap?"

More silence, but a bead of sweat had formed on Wong's forehead.

"I'll take that as a yes, and that means you were ordered to ignore it. Since Misato's in the room, that means someone above her in the chain of command did so. OK, you can go."

Wong quickly took his leave before Misato could start in on him.

I turned to Misato. "You're up. I need you to close your eyes."

"What for? And what the Hell was all that about Rei not being protected? I'm supposed to know these things!"

"Just do it, I'm going to show you something, and I want you to say the first thing that comes to mind."

Misato gave me a bleary look, "Fine."

I pulled out what I'd taken a few minutes to edit. My artistic skills weren't great, but I couldn't exactly Photoshop it. "Tell me who this is."

Misato opened her eyes. "Duh. That's Rei. What's the … wait." Misato grabbed the photo, the black and white one of Shinji from my file that I'd used a couple of highlighter pens on. She turned and looked at Shinji, then back to the photo. "No way." She then got up and grabbed Shinji's head to his surprise, her eyes widening as the revelation sank in.

"M-Misato, what are you doing?" Shinji squeaked.

"OH! MY! GOD! HOW DID I NOT NOTICE BEFORE?"

She dashed to her room, and came back out with her laptop, then dragged Shinji to the table and sat him down in front of it as she pulled up a file. I backed up out of habit. Watch or no watch I didn't want to risk whammying the computer.

"Misato, what are…?"

"Shinji, just LOOK!"

"This looks like it's from our last synch test, I don't see what you're…"

At this point I dared to slip around to look at the monitor while Misato typed in something. The screen showed Rei and Shinji in their plugsuits, and as I watched, the images moved to overlay one another. Their faces matched nearly perfectly.

"That's... strange. So Ayanami… sort of looks like me?"

"Misato, can you pull up a picture of Shinji's mom?" I asked.

"Hang on…" Misato began typing frantically, and after a few minutes pulled up what looked like a college yearbook photo. She scrunched her face up at the screen. "It's hard to tell, this picture's old… but… yeah. Damn. This is some pretty mind-blowing shit."

"W-w-what are you two talking about?" Shinji stammered.

"You didn't tell him?" Misato turned to look at me.

"I wanted a second opinion, and I figured it'd be better coming from you."

Misato stared daggers at me. "Shinji, what this asshole didn't tell you is that looks like Rei is your sister."

Shinji gaped in shock, "But… that makes no sense! I would have known about that wouldn't I?"

"Maybe, maybe not. In-vitro fertilization, surrogate mothers, Rei could've been raised from birth by a different family. It's not like your dad doesn't keep all kinds of secrets." I suggested. The 'half'-sister part was something I didn't want to explain just yet. Shinji began to sway a little. "You ok?"

"Yes, No, I… I just need to think about this… This is… Rei is my SISTER?" Shinji seemed dazed by it all and wandered toward his bedroom.

"Shinji." Misato started after him, but I held her back. "Just a second, this is a lot for him to absorb, but that's not the real bombshell."

"What are you talking about Harry?"

"Remember the spooky stuff I told you about?"

"Ugh. How could I forget, and believe me I tried!" my implication hit her then, "Are you saying Rei isn't even HUMAN? That's crazy!"

"I have a hunch, and I think it's a good one, but I need to talk to someone who'd know for sure. Gendo won't talk. I doubt Kozou will either. Whoever Rei's doctor is would be the next choice."

"That'd be Ritz. Yeah, if there's something hinky about Rei, she'd know."

I thought for a second trying to place the name… Ritsuko Akagi? "The bottle blonde with the Cindy Crawford mole?"

Misato nodded, "Yup, Ritz and I go waaaaay back, but don't mention the hair dye." she said with a conspiratorial leer.

"Good, now go be a mommy. I think I've shredded enough of the poor kid's innocence for one day."

I thought about how I'd try and question Dr. Akagi. Her file had said she was the head of Research and Development or some such technobabble. That was potentially bad. If she was the head brainiac here, she'd know a lot of NERV's dirty little secrets, which it looked like I was going to need in short order. It also meant that she was probably working with Chuckles, but if Misato was old friends with her, maybe, just maybe, she'd be willing to talk.

Yeah, right.

* * *

"Ok Asuka. We're almost done here." came the voice of the lieutenant from the Pribnow box. "Sempai?"

Dr. Akagi looked distractedly at her assistant. "What? Oh yes, continue with the tests, Maya."

_Finally. _Asuka thought. _Four hours of sitting here, no thanks to that alte Hexe._ She'd spent the whole morning in this simulator plug for some inane reason._ Don't they know I'm a **far** better pilot than the Third? Why even bother with all these tests, it'll only show how truly pathetic that loser is. Pointless. I have better things to do with my time._

Ristuko Akagi had more pressing matters on her mind than monitoring a simple synch test. Maya could handle that without her. She had to keep up appearances though. She had known of SEELE's true plans for the Evas for a long time, and she had carefully planned and schemed for years.

Then HE had shown up.

Even in her mind the word **wizard **sounded ridiculous. Dresden's mere _existence_ was an affront to everything she believed, everything she had worked for. And her best… no, the **only** person she could even call 'friend', had betrayed her. Misato apparently knew just what he was, and TRUSTED him. It was a strange sense of irony though, Misato didn't know the truth about this place either.

The dossier had said Dresden was 'critical for the success of the Instrumentality Project'. Nonsense. She knew the plan didn't need any help. Construction on the MP series was proceeding normally. They'd be complete in another 10 months. The next Angel was prophesied to arrive within a week, but both Units 01 and 02 were fully operational. Everything had been planned out well in advance, except for Dresden.

A lesser mind would have descended into the refuge of madness. Not her. No. She would NOT become her mother. She had to find a way to use this to her advantage. Her revenge could still be carried out, but…

"Hey Ritzy!" Her reverie was broken suddenly. "Already back to work?"

Ristuko crushed out the stub of her cigarette and lit another before turning to face the new arrival, a slight look of exasperation on her face. "What is it Katsuragi? You know these synch ratio tests are…"

She stopped in mid-sentence when she saw just whom her so-called friend had brought with her. "What is he doing here?"

"Inspecting. I'm an inspector you know. Says so on my ID." I flashed her my best grin and idly ran a finger across the nearest console. "Mmm… Shiny. I must say NERV's janitorial staff is impeccable."

"Maya, why don't you go take a break, I can finish up here."

"Yes ma'am." The bridge bunny politely bowed as she left her station. Ritsuko walked over and flipped a switch on the console.

"Alright wizard, what the Hell do you want."

...

Asuka just wanted this to be over with and get a hot shower and she really didn't want to relieve herself while still in the plug. When she saw Misato and whats-his-face come in, and the doc's little minion leave she figured she could finally be done. So it came as a surprise when her audio feed to the Prinbow box suddenly cut off.

"Verdammt, now what?" Her frustration mounted for a moment, then she smiled. "Oho. The adults don't want me to hear something. Well two can play that game." Asuka Langley Soryu was no dummy. It took her only a few seconds to reestablish the audio pickup.

...

"You're clued. Good, that's going to make my job a lot easier."

"I have nothing to say to you. In fact, if not for the Commander's orders I'd have you both shot."

"To her credit, Misato did shoot me on the carrier." I shrugged at Misato as she arched an eyebrow at me. "Just saying."

"Misato! You KNOW what he is. At the very best he's an American spy!" Ritsuko shouted, waving her arms fervently.

"Spy is such an ugly word. Can you use 'Secret Agent' instead?" I said in my best British accent.

Misato just stared at me and shook her head. "Yeah, well he also nearly took down the Sixth Angel single-handed. If not for him we'd likely have lost that fight and none of us would be here now."

In the plug, Asuka blinked in astonishment. That white flash… HE'D somehow done that?

"We don't need his help against the Angels! For all we know he is one!"

I didn't bother to mention that my little Angel potshot trick had very nearly killed me too. "I'm no Angel, and neither are those things you all are fighting. Trust me, I've met a few. But I'm not here to talk about that, I want to talk about Rei."

_Hmm, so the big dork has some dirt on Wondergirl…and what this about the Angels not being Angels? Ridiculous._

"See, I've seen a lot of things. Things most people wouldn't believe. So when I run into something odd, I'm a little more familiar with it. Let me tell you Rei definitely counts as 'odd'. I've even seen this particular flavor of odd before. I've dealt with Lara enough to smell the sort of Rube Goldberg plots the White Court feels compelled to do and this whole place stinks of it."

"White Court… you mean the sexy, sparkly…" Misato gawked. "That she's Shinji's sister is weird enough but now you're saying Rei's a _vampire_?"

_**What** did she just say? _

Ritsuko just began laughing with a not quite sane look in her eyes. Classic Mad Scientist stuff. I half expected her to pull a death ray out of her coat and start shooting while doing a classic villain monologue.

"You know for a wizard Mr. Dresden, you aren't a very wise man at all." It looked like she was going to spill everything. Of course if she kept to the cliché, she'd try to kill us next. I was pretty sure I could prevent that though.

But whatever dark secrets she was about to reveal were suddenly cut off by a "Mein Gott!" coming over the speakers.

Crap.


	10. Chapter 10

Commander Gendo Ikari was, at this moment, flying to Geneva for the quarterly UN funding meetings, so Kozo Fuyutsuki was left to sit behind the imposing desk. The Mausoleum didn't suit his tastes, but the chair was _really_ comfortable. Far better than his station on the bridge in Central Dogma, he'd have to look into doing something about that during the next budget.

The doors to the cavernous office opened and a young ensign cautiously entered. She held a tray and had a small folder under one arm. "Your lunch Sir. I also brought the security logs you requested. Will there be anything else, Sir?"

"Thank you Miss Sakai. That will be all for now." Kozo made it a point to know the names of those on his personal staff. He also made it a point that whenever possible, they were female, single, under the age of twenty-five, and looked very fetching in the standard NERV uniform. It's amazing the things you can get away with when you've convinced the world to basically write you a blank check. He smiled as she left. Miss Sakai had a fine ass.

Sipping his tea, he gave a cursory scan over the folder. The entry on the last page, indicating that Dresden had briefly entered the Ayanami residence with Shinji was concerning. The chances of Dresden making the connection between Shinji and Rei were remote at best, even Katsuragi hadn't figured that out yet. The worst that could probably happen would be Dresden attempting to soulgaze Rei, and there hadn't been any reports of an insane wizard running rampant.

_Still, it would be prudent to check up on the matter_, he thought, idly typing in a request to the MAGI to locate Inspector Dresden.

So when the live feed from the Pribnow Box appeared on the monitor, Dr Akagi laughing, then turning in surprise toward the test plugs, Kozo instinctively knew they had _severely_ underestimated Dresden's ability to screw things up.

* * *

**Chapter 10 Secrets and Lies**

* * *

Something like this was bound to happen eventually, so the cover story had been fabricated well in advance. It didn't need to be wholly convincing, just strong enough to keep anyone complacent until the final stage of the plan. But this was too damned early. The Seventh hadn't even arrived yet!

_How had that thug figured it out?_

Fuyutsuki looked through the observation ports at the four people in the secure rooms. Asuka was alone in the first, still in her plug suit, spewing a tirade of profanity and disbelief at how she was being treated in German, Japanese, English and a couple of other languages he didn't understand loud enough to be heard even through the soundproofing.

Shinji just sat in the second with his head bowed. What was the term? Oh yes, 'contemplating his navel'. The Commander's son was still predictable like that, but his finding out about Rei's relationship to him was something that couldn't be easily fixed.

The scenario had been elegant: Have Shinji become emotionally attached to Rei. Introduce Asuka as an antagonistic romantic rival. Push Asuka to the point where her fragile psyche crumbled, forcing Shinji to turn to Rei for emotional support. Have Rei 'die' in a heroic sacrifice that Shinji would blame himself for. Reveal Rei's 'miraculous survival', but dash whatever hopes Shinji might have by making sure Rei had no memory of or interest in their previous relationship. By that point Shinji would likely be _willing_ to initiate Instrumentality.

When he opened the third door he was pretty sure Misato would be screaming bloody murder at him if not for her respect of the chain of command. She still had a rather healthy glower though. And then there was Dresden. If not for the fact soulfire was needed for this plan to work…

It took a supreme effort of willpower to maintain his composure, but the Deputy Commander of NERV calmly faced them. "I assume you two want some explanation for this."

"Not really." I said. "I'm guessing this is where you pull the Goldfinger schtick. 'No Mr. Bond I expect you to DIE!.' You know the the guy the had playing him couldn't speak a word of English? All his lines were dubbed in afterward."

The façade broke then, "If you don't cooperate MISTER Dresden, I will order Major Katsuragi to execute you as a foreign spy." He turned to Misato, hand reaching for his sidearm, "and if I give that order Major, you will follow it without hesitation or I will shoot YOU on the spot as a traitor! Regardless of what you might think, you two are EXPENDABLE!"

Misato sat bolt upright at this statement.

"Guess we'd better listen then." I drawled and leveled my gaze at him. He was smart, he didn't try meeting it, and that made me sure Kozo was bluffing for authority's sake. Even at pointblank range I was confident I could get my shield up in time. He hadn't even bothered to draw his gun and point it menacingly at Misato's head.

"I'm surprised Chuckles isn't here giving this speech, you don't pull off 'evil bastard' quite like he does."

Kozo's eyebrow twitched, it somehow looked familiar. Maybe I'd just pissed off so many people over the years the reaction had become universal. He walked to the side of the room and pushed a remote control. A projector lowered from the ceiling.

"The only three people on this base privy to this information are the Commander, Dr. Akagi and myself. There _were_ protocols in the works to have this released to you, but unfortunately the events today have precluded that. Both Pilots Ikari and Soryu will also have to made aware of this but since they are acting like children at the moment I've decided to let you two explain it to them afterward." The room darkened as a slide show started.

"In 1998, advanced seismic surveys revealed two spherical anomalies in the Earth's crust, each just under fourteen kilometers in diameter. One in Western Antarctica, the other under Hakone, Japan. The GEHIRN committee, a philanthropic group of corporations and scientists, arranged for studies of the sites."

"The initial findings showed that these structures were some of the oldest formations found on Earth, in excess of four billion years. When the first geologist team uncovered the massive chamber within the Hakone structure, it was assumed something similar would be found in the Antarctic."

"No one expected to find extraterrestrial biology there, preserved in stasis for billions of years. It was the greatest discovery ever, definitive proof that Humanity was not alone in the universe. The real surprise came after the samples were anaylzed. While the Antarctic sample was definitely alien, biological data found at this site was determined to be DNA based. The committee designated the Antarctic site as ADAM, and the sample from here was encoded as Lilith."

"You mean there's a fucking ANGEL sitting under our asses and I wasn't told about it?" Misato screamed.

"Your reaction is precisely why you were not told, Major." Kozo deadpanned. "Without the knowledge we've gained from studying Lilith we would be helpless against the Angels. So do not question the reasons this information was strictly on a need to know basis."

"We're not entirely certain what triggered the events of September 13, 2000. Most of the data was lost, but for whatever reason the ADAM entity awoke from stasis and attempted to fulfill what we assume to be its primary function. Seed the planet with the life based on it's biology. When ADAM was destroyed, large portions of its body were scattered over the Earth. Over the past fifteen years, those fragments have adapted and reformed into the Angels."

I'm no genius, but it didn't take one to figure out the obvious. "That's why your Angels are attacking here. You've got Lilith, and they want her."

"Correct. The presence of Lilith under this facility is the reason the Angels are attacking. The Angels are damaged, but if they were to reach Lilith, we believe they could repair themselves, and trigger a reaction that would destroy all life on Earth."

"Why not just destroy Lilith then?"

"That is the final fallback option. Should an Angel penetrate to Terminal Dogma, there are sufficient thermonuclear devices in the Geofront to vaporize half of Japan. There is an advantage to keeping her here though. The Angels will be drawn here, where we can have a chance to fight and defeat them."

It seemed logical. If you've got something that somebody wants, and you can't move it or get rid of it, it makes sense to build your defenses around it. It still left a few questions.

"Why not just go public?"

"Surely someone such as yourself understands the need for secrecy. Even in the face of a threat to human existence, nations squabble and political parties backstab. Even now, after four attacks, the general world consensus thinks the Angels are some grand hoax. Tokyo-3 would have been impossible to build."

"Ok, point."

"That is also why you are here Dresden. The 'suggestions' your White Council provided were mostly dismissed by the governments you sent them to as lunatic ravings, but it did make NERV aware that there are certain individuals who might see the Angels as a means to achieve their own goals. You are needed as a counter to that threat. I will admit the tactics the Commander used were heavy-handed…"

"You have a gift for understatement."

"You have a strong distrust of authority. Coercion seemed the easiest method."

"So now that I've found your dirty secrets, you're coming clean? Is that it? Your boss threatens me and mine and now you ASK for my help? Screw that."

I stood up and with a look, dared him to try and stop me from leaving.

"Those individuals who would subvert the Angels? You have dealt with them before. Or should I remind you of what happened in Chicago ten years ago?"

He was talking about the Darkhallow, and yes, if someone like Cowl or the Nickelheads got a hold of something like an Angel it would be Bad News. But that's nothing new, there's a fair number of otherworldly beasties and Evil Artifacts of Doom roaming around. A few more wouldn't change anything right?

"Why would they go for something like that? I can think of a few things that are way easier. Your Angels aren't exactly portable."

"Because it allows them to avoid your so-called Laws of Magic."

That's when it hit me. That's why the White Council hadn't done anything to stop Second Impact before it happened. The world had been told a lie about what happened that day, and so had I. My lie was just tailored to fit what I would believe.

"The Angels aren't Outsiders."

Kozo nodded. "The Angels are alien, yes, but they are native to this physical plane of existence. By your Council's Laws, they are no different than the threat of nuclear proliferation."

"Figures the Merlin would be a stuck up ass like that."

"Commander Ikari is aware of my former association with the Merlin. It was his idea that I use that connection try to convince the Council to send someone here as a consultant after Sachiel's attack."

So, Gendo and Arthur had planned this. It actually made a weird sort of sense. The White Council was usually too busy with it's own problems to worry about anyone else's. I'm sure I counted as one of those problems. Since I generally stayed in my own backyard, it didn't ruffle too many feathers, but I'd been on the Merlin's shit list for quite some time. I also was probably the only wizard on the Council that was young enough to be open-minded and powerful enough to do something if it was needed. It still galled me that they tried to play me like a puppet.

"Call your goons off my friends. They don't need to be involved in this."

"You'll help us then."

"I'll THINK about it." I snarled. Damn it he was right though, and from the smile that flickered over Kozo's face he knew it too. Better change the subject. "What about Rei?"

"Miss Ayanami is the result of one of our first experiments with Lilith. When it was discovered that Lilith was the progenitor of all life on Earth, several of the scientists believed that her genetic material could be used to jump start human evolution to the next phase."

"You wanted a super-soldier."

"That was not our intention."

"Sure it was, you get a bunch of mad scientists together with something new for them to play with and they _always_ try to build a better way to kill stuff. Your giant robots another one of those experiments?"

Kozo frowned, Misato just sat there slack-jawed. I think all the truths being layed out for her had broke her brain. Seriously, how could she have been so naïve?

"Yes, the Evangelions are a result of Lilithian genetic research. Ayanami, however was our only success in making a human/Lilith hybrid, and even that is only a partial success. Among other things, her Lilithian biology aggressively tries to 'cure' her human half, which requires her to be on an ever-increasing array of immunosuppressants. Even with the best treatment, Dr. Akagi tells me she has about a year to live. 18 months at the outside."

Hearing that Rei was going to die pulled Misato back to reality.

"Goddammit! That still doesn't explain why Shinji wasn't told she's his sister!" Misato snapped.

"That was the Commander's decision. Rei's safety was in her anonymity, just as Shinji's was before he came here. That knowledge could also create undue mental stress, and if he is unable to pilot, or acts irrationally in battle because of it..."

That brought something else to mind. "Shinji and Rei are valuable because they're both Pilots. They might be related, but Asuka isn't. So what makes a Pilot so special then?"

Misato spoke then. "I was told that only children born after Second Impact had the potential to be a Pilot. Is that a lie too Fuyutsuki?"

"Sadly, no. Otherwise we would never have brought any of the Children into this. Pilots need to have a neural structure that is still young and flexible enough to withstand the stresses of piloting. There is also a… compatibility factor to consider."

Kozo's phrasing seemed odd. Compatibility. That's something you'd hear from a doctor. And Shinji's mom had died in a lab accident of some kind. Hell's Bells. I felt sick at what all that added up to. "Like an organ donor?" I asked.

"A crude but essentially correct analogy. While we can build the Evas, they lack what could be best be referred to as a soul. Without that they are nothing more than bodies."

Misato went pale. "Oh God… the Contact experiment. You mean…"

"Yes." Kozo's face was grim. "As far as we know, the only way to activate the core of an Eva is for someone to be sacrificed to it. Yui knew this when she got in that damned Entry Plug."


End file.
